UNIVERSITY  OF 
CALiFOf?NlA 

SANTA  CRUZ 


\       *^VJWA 


V 


C 1906  ] 


CHRISTIAN     SCIENCE 


WITH    NOTES    CONTAINING 
CORRECTIONS  TO  DATE 


BY 

MARK    TWAIN 


ILLUSTRATED 


NEW  YORK   AND   LONDON 

HARPER  &  BROTHERS    PUBLISHERS 

1907 


UNIFORM  EDITION  OF 
MARK      TWAIN'S      WORKS 

Red  Cloth.     Crown  8vo. 

THE  AMERICAN  CLAIMANT,  Etc.  $1.75 

A  CONNECTICUT  YANKEE.     Illustrated.  1.75 

HUCKLEBERRY  FINN.     Illustrated.  1.75 

PRINCE  AND    PAUPER.     Illustrated.  1.75 

LIFE  ON  THE    MISSISSIPPI.      Illustrated.  i-7S 
THE  MAN  THAT  CORRUPTED    HADLEYBURG, 

Etc.     Illustrated.  1.75 

TOM  SAWYER  ABROAD,   Etc.      Illustrated.  1.75 
ADVENTURES  OF  TOM  SAWYER.     Illustrated.     1.75 

PUDD'NHEAD  WILSON.      Illustrated.  1.75 

SKETCHES    NEW   AND    OLD.     Illustrated.  i-7S 

THE  $30,000  BEQUEST,  Etc.     Illustrated.  1.75 

INNOCENTS  ABROAD.      Illustrated.  2.00 

ROUGHING  IT.     Illustrated.  2.00 

A  TRAMP  ABROAD.      Illustrated.  2.00 

THE  GILDED  AGE.     Illustrated.  2.00 

FOLLOWING  THE  EQUATOR.     Illustrated.  2 .  oo 

JOAN  OF  ARC.     Illustrated.  2.50 

In  Half  Leather,  $1.25  per  volume  extra 

Other  Books  by  Mark  Twain 

EXTRACTS  FROM  ADAM'S  DIARY.    Illustrated.  $1.00 

EVE'S  DIARY.     Illustrated.  i.oo 

A  DOG'S  TALE.     Illustrated.  i .  oo 

THE  JUMPING  FROG      Illustrated.  i .  oo 

How  TO  TELL  A  STORY,  Etc.  1.50 
A  DOUBLE-BARRELLED   DETECTIVE   STORY. 

Illustrated.  1.50 


Copyright,  1899,  by  COSMOPOLITAN  PUBLISHING  Co. 

Copyright,  1902,  1903,  by 
THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW  PUBLISHING  Co. 

Copyright,  1907,  by  HARPER  &  BROTHERS. 

All  rights  reserved. 
Published  February,  1907. 


Bjf 


1107 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


MARK   TWAIN    (1906) Frontispiece 

THE  FIRST  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST,  SCIENTIST, 
BOSTON,  MASS.,  KNOWN  AS  THE  MOTHER 

CHURCH facing  p.       70 

THE  FIRST  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST,  SCIENTIST,  CEN 
TRAL  PARK  WEST,  AND  Q6TH  STREET,  NEW 
YORK "  252 


PREFACE 

BOOK  I.  of  this  volume  occupies  a  quarter  or 
a  third  of  the  volume,  and  consists  of  matter 
written  about  four  years  ago,  but  not  hitherto 
published  in  book  form.  It  contained  errors 
of  judgment  and  of  fact.  I  have  now  correct 
ed  these  to  the  best  of  my  ability  and  later 
knowledge. 

Book  II.  was  written  at  the  beginning  of 
1903,  and  has  not  until  now  appeared  in  any 
form.  In  it  my  purpose  has  been  to  present  a 
character-portrait  of  Mrs.  Eddy,  drawn  from 
her  own  acts  and  words  solely,  not  from  hear 
say  and  rumor;  and  to  explain  the  nature  and 
scope  of  her  Monarchy,  as  revealed  in  the  Laws 
by  which  she  governs  it,  and  which  she  wrote 
herself. 

MARK  TWAIN. 

NEW  YORK,  January,  1907. 


BOOK    I 


CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 


"//  is  the  first  time  since  the  dawn-days  of  Creation  that 
a  Voice  has  gone  crashing  through  space  with  such 
placid  and  complacent  confidence  and  command" 

CHAPTER    I 

VIENNA,  1899. 

THIS  last  summer,  when  I  was  on  my  way 
back  to  Vienna  from  the  Appetite-Cure  iff"tneL 
mountains,  I  fell  over  a  cliff  in  %he  twilight 
and  broke  some  arms  an^tfj^Bfd  qftf"  thing 
or  another,  and  by  gooo^  ^as  fWnd  by 
some  peasants  who  had  lo^^n  ass,  and  they 
carried  me  to  the  nearest  habitation,  which 
was  one  of  those  large,  low,  thatch  -  roofed 
fa  m-houses,  with  apartments  in  the  garret  for 
the  family,  and  a  cunning  little  porch  under 
the  deep  gable  decorated  with  boxes  of  bright- 
colored  flowers  and  cats;  on  the  ground -floor 
a  large  and  light  sitting-room,  separated  from 


the  milch  -  cattle  apartment  by  a  partition; 
and  in  the  front  yard  rose  stately  and  fine  the 
wealth  and  pride  of  the  house,  the  manure- 
pile.  That  sentence  is  Germanic,  and  shows 
that  I  am  acquiring  that  sort  of  mastery  of 
the  art  and  spirit  of  the  language  which  en 
ables  a  man  to  travel  all  day  in  one  sentence 
without  changing  cars. 

There  was  a  village  a  mile  away,  and  a  horse- 
doctor  lived  there,  but  there  was  no  surgeon. 
It  seemed  a  bad  outlook;  mine  was  distinctly 
a  surgery  case.  Then  it  was  remembered  that 
a  lady  from  Boston  was  summering  in  that 
village,  and  she  was  a  Christian  Science  doctor 
and  could  cure  anything.  So  she  was  sent  for. 
It  was  night  by  this  time,  and  she  could  not 
conveniently  come,  but  sent  word  that  it  was 
no  matter,  there  was  no  hurry,  she  would 
give  me  "absent  treatment"  now,  and  come 
in  the  morning;  meantime  she  begged  me  to 
make  myself  tranquil  and  comfortable  and  re 
member  that  there  was  nothing  the  matter  with 
me.  I  thought  there  must  be  some  mistake. 

"  Did  you  tell  her  I  walked  off  a  cliff  seventy- 
five  feet  high?" 


"Yes." 

"  And  struck  a  bowlder  at  the  bottom  and 
bounced  ?" 

"Yes." 

"And  struck  another  one  and  bounced 
again?" 

"Yes." 

"And  struck  another  one  and  bounced  yet 
again?" 

"Yes." 

"And  broke  the  bowlders?" 

"Yes." 

"That  accounts  for  it;  she  is  thinking  of  the 
bowlders.  Why  didn't  you  tell  her  I  got  hurt, 
too?" 

"  I  did.  I  told  her  what  you  told  me  to  tell 
her :  that  you  were  now  but  an  incoherent  se 
ries  of  compound  fractures  extending  from 
your  scalp  -  lock  to  your  heels,  and  that  the 
comminpted  projections  caused  you  to  look 
like  a  hat-rack." 

"  And  it  was  after  this  that  she  wished  me  to 
remember  that  there  was  nothing  the  matter 
with  me?" 

"Those  were  her  words." 


"  I  do  not  understand  it.  I  believe  she  has 
not  diagnosed  the  case  with  sufficient  care.  Did 
she  look  like  a  person  who  was  theorizing,  or 
did  she  look  like  one  who  has  fallen  off  preci 
pices  herself  and  brings  to  the  aid  of  abstract 
science  the  confirmations  of  personal  experi 
ence?" 

tl  Bitter 

It  was  too  large  a  contract  for  the  Stuben- 
mddchen's  vocabulary;  she  couldn't  call  the 
hand.  I  allowed  the  subject  to  rest  there, 
and  asked  for  something  to  eat  and  smoke, 
and  something  hot  to  drink,  and  a  basket  to 
pile  my  legs  in;  but  I  could  not  have  any  of 
these  things. 

"Why?" 

"  She  said  you  would  need  nothing  at  all." 

"  But  I  am  hungry  and  thirsty,  and  in  des 
perate  pain." 

"She  said  you  would  have  these  delusions, 
but  must  pay  no  attention  to  them.  She  wants 
you  to  particularly  remember  that  there  are  no 
such  things  as  hunger  and  thirst  and  pain." 

"She  does,  does  she?" 

"  It  is  what  she  said." 


"  Does  she  seem  to  be  in  full  and  functionable 
possession  of  her  intellectual  plant,  such  as  it  is  ?" 

"Bitte?" 

"  Do  they  let  her  run  at  large,  or  do  they  tie 
her  up?" 

"Tie  her  up?" 

"There,  good-night,  run  along;  you  are  a 
good  girl,  but  your  mental  Geschirr  is  not  ar 
ranged  for  light  and  airy  conversation.  Leave 
me  to  rny  delusions." 


CHAPTER     II 

IT  was  a  night  of  anguish,  of  course — at  least, 
I  supposed  it  was,  for  it  had  all  the  symptoms 
of  it — but  it  passed  at  last,  and  the  Christian 
Scientist  came,  and  I  was  glad.  She  was  mid 
dle-aged,  and  large  and  bony,  and  erect,  and 
had  an  austere  face  and  a  resolute  jaw  and  a 
Roman  beak  and  was  a  widow  in  the  third  de 
gree,  and  her  name  was  Fuller.  I  was  eager  to 
get  to  business  and  find  relief,  but  she  was  dis 
tressingly  deliberate.  She  unpinned  and  un 
hooked  and  uncoupled  her  upholsteries  one  by 
one,  abolished  the  wrinkles  with  a  flirt  of  her 
hand,  and  hung  the  articles  up;  peeled  off  her 
gloves  and  disposed  of  them,  got  a  book  out  of 
her  hand-bag,  then  drew  a  chair  to  the  bedside, 
descended  into  it  without  hurry,  and  I  hung  out 
my  tongue.  She  said,  with  pity  but  without 
passion : 

"  Return  it  to  its  receptacle.  We  deal  with 
the  mind  only,  not  with  its  dumb  servants." 


I  could  not  offer  my  pulse,  because  the  con 
nection  was  broken;  but  she  detected  the  apol 
ogy  before  I  could  word  it,  and  indicated  by  a 
negative  tilt  of  her  head  that  the  pulse  was  an 
other  dumb  servant  that  she  had  no  use  for. 
Then  I  thought  I  would  tell  her  my  symptoms 
and  how  I  felt,  so  that  she  would  understand 
the  case;  but  that  was  another  inconsequence, 
she  did  not  need  to  know  those  things;  more 
over,  my  remark  about  how  I  felt  was  an  abuse 
of  language,  a  misapplication  of  terms. 

"  One  does  not  feel,"  she  explained;  "  there  is 
no  such  thing  as  feeling:  therefore,  to  speak  of 
a  non-existent  thing  as  existent  is  a  contradic 
tion.  Matter  has  no  existence;  nothing  exists 
but  mind;  the  mind  cannot  feel  pain,  it  can 
only  imagine  it." 

"But  if  it  hurts,  just  the  same — " 

"  It  doesn't.  A  thing  which  is  unreal  cannot 
exercise  the  functions  of  reality.  Pain  is  un 
real;  hence,  pain  cannot  hurt." 

In  making  a  sweeping  gesture  to  indicate  the 
act  of  shooing  the  illusion  of  pain  out  of  the 
mind,  she  raked  her  hand  on  a  pin  in  her  dress, 
said  "  Ouch!"  and  went  tranquilly  on  with  her 


IO 


talk.  "You  should  never  allow  yourself  to 
speak  of  how  you  feel,  nor  permit  others  to  ask 
you  how  you  are  feeling ;  you  should  never  con 
cede  that  you  are  ill,  nor  permit  others  to  talk 
about  disease  or  pain  or  death  or  similar  non- 
existences  in  your  presence.  Such  talk  only 
encourages  the  mind  to  continue  its  empty 
imaginings."  Just  at  that  point  the  Stuben- 
mddchen  trod  on  the  cat's  tail,  and  the  cat  let 
fly  a  frenzy  of  cat-profanity.  I  asked,  with 
caution : 

"  Is  a  cat's  opinion  about  pain  valuable?" 

"  A  cat  has  no  opinion ;  opinions  proceed  from 
mind  only;  the  lower  animals,  being  eternally 
perishable,  have  not  been  granted  mind;  with 
out  mind,  opinion  is  impossible." 

"She  merely  imagined  she  felt  a  pain — the 
cat?" 

"  She  cannot  imagine  a  pain,  for  imagining  is 
an  effect  of  mind;  without  mind,  there  is  no 
imagination.  A  cat  has  no  imagination." 

"Then  she  had  a  real  pain?" 

"  I  have  already  told  you  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  real  pain." 

"  It  is  strange  and  interesting.     I  do  wonder 


II 

what  was  the  matter  with  the  cat.  Because, 
there  being  no  such  thing  as  a  real  pain,  and 
she  not  being  able  to  imagine  an  imaginary  one, 
it  would  seem  that  God  in  His  pity  has  com 
pensated  the  cat  with  some  kind  of  a  mysteri 
ous  emotion  usable  when  her  tail  is  trodden  on 
which,  for  the  moment,  joins  cat  and  Christian 
in  one  common  brotherhood  of — " 

She  broke  in  with  an  irritated — 

"Peace!  The  cat  feels  nothing,  the  Chris 
tian  feels  nothing.  Your  empty  and  foolish 
imaginings  are  profanation  and  blasphemy ,  and 
can  do  you  an  injury.  It  is  wiser  and  better 
and  holier  to  recognize  and  confess  that  there 
is  no  such  thing  as  disease  or  pain  or  death." 

"  I  am  full  of  imaginary  tortures,"  I  said, 
"  but  I  do  not  think  I  could  be  any  more  un 
comfortable  if  they  were  real  ones.  What  must 
I  do  to  get  rid  of  them?" 

"There  is  no  occasion  to  get  rid  of  them, 
since  they  do  not  exist.  They  are  illusions 
propagated  by  matter,  and  matter  has  no  ex 
istence;  there  is  no  such  thing  as  matter." 

"  It  sounds  right  and  clear,  but  yet  it  seems 
in  a  degree  elusive;  it  seems  to  slip  through, 


12 


just  when  you  think  you  are  getting  a  grip 
on  it." 

"Explain." 

"Well,  for  instance:  if  there  is  no  such  thing 
as  matter,  how  can  matter  propagate  things?" 

In  her  compassion  she  almost  smiled.  She 
would  have  smiled  if  there  were  any  such  thing 
as  a  smile. 

"It  is  quite  simple,"  she  said;  "the  funda 
mental  propositions  of  Christian  Science  ex 
plain  it,  and  they  are  summarized  in  the  four 
following  self-evident  propositions:  i.  God  is 
All  in  all.  2.  God  is  good.  Good  is  Mind. 

3.  God,  Spirit,  being  all,  nothing  is  matter. 

4.  Life,  God,  omnipotent  Good,  deny  death, 
evil,  sin,  disease.     There — now  you  see." 

It  seemed  nebulous;  it  did  not  seem  to  say 
anything  about  the  difficulty  in  hand — how 
non-existent  matter  can  propagate  illusions. 
I  said,  with  some  hesitancy: 

"Does — does  it  explain?" 

"  Doesn't  it?  Even  if  read  backward  it  will 
do  it." 

With  a  budding  hope,  I  asked  her  to  do  it 
backward. 


13 

"Very  well.  Disease  sin  evil  death  deny 
Good  omnipotent  God  life  matter  is  nothing  all 
being  Spirit  God  Mind  is  Good  good  is  God  all  in 
All  is  God.  There — do  you  understand  now?" 

"  It — it — well,  it  is  plainer  than  it  was  before ; 
still— " 

"Well?" 

"Could  you  try  it  some  more  ways?" 

"As  many  as  you  like;  it  always  means  the 
same.  Interchanged  in  any  way  you  please  it 
cannot  be  made  to  mean  anything  different 
from  what  it  means  when  put  in  any  other  way. 
Because  it  is  perfect.  You  can  jumble  it  all  up, 
and  it  makes  no  difference:  it  always  comes  out 
the  way  it  was  before.  It  was  a  marvellous 
mind  that  produced  it.  As  a  mental  tour  de 
force  it  is  without  a  mate,  it  defies  alike  the 
simple,  the  concrete,  and  the  occult." 

"It  seems  to  be  a  corker." 

I  blushed  for  the  word,  but  it  was  out  before 
I  could  stop  it. 

"A  what?" 

"A — wonderful  structure — combination,  so 
to  speak,  of  profound  thoughts — unthinkable 
ones — un — " 


14 

"  It  is  true.  Read  backward,  or  forward,  or 
perpendicularly,  or  at  any  given  angle,  these 
four  propositions  will  always  be  found  to  agree 
in  statement  and  proof." 

"Ah — proof.  Now  we  are  coming  at  it.  The 
statements  agree;  they  agree  with — with — any 
way,  they  agree;  I  noticed  that;  but  what  is  it 
they  prove — I  mean,  in  particular?" 

"Why,  nothing  could  be  clearer.  They 
prove:  i.  GOD — Principle,  Life,  Truth,  Love, 
Soul,  Spirit,  Mind.  Do  you  get  that?" 

"  I — well,  I  seem  to.     Go  on,  please." 

"2.  MAN — God's  universal  idea,  individual, 
perfect,  eternal.  Is  it  clear?" 

"  It— I  think  so.     Continue." 

"3.  IDEA — An  image  in  Mind;  the  immedi 
ate  object  of  understanding.  There  it  is — the 
whole  sublime  Arcana  of  Christian  Science  in  a 
nutshell.  Do  you  find  a  weak  place  in  it  any 
where?" 

"  Well — no;  it  seems  strong." 

"Very  well.  There  is  more.  Those  three 
constitute  the  Scientific  Definition  of  Immor 
tal  Mind.  Next,  we  have  the  Scientific  Defini 
tion  of  Mortal  Mind.  Thus.  FIRST  DEGREE: 


1$ 

Depravity,  i.  Physical  —  Passions  and  appe 
tites,  fear,  depraved  will,  pride,  envy,  deceit, 
hatred,  revenge,  sin,  disease,  death." 

"Phantasms,  madam — unrealities,  as  1  un 
derstand  it." 

"Every  one.  SECOND  DEGREE:  Evil  Disap 
pearing,  i.  Moral— Honesty,  affection,  com 
passion,  hope,  faith,  meekness,  temperance. 
Is  it  clear?" 

"Crystal." 

"THIRD  DEGREE:  Spiritual  Salvation,  i. 
Spiritual — Faith,  wisdom,  power,  purity,  un 
derstanding,  health,  love.  You  see  how  search- 
ingly  and  co-ordinately  interdependent  and 
anthropomorphous  it  all  is.  In  this  Third 
Degree,  as  we  know  by  the  revelations  of 
Christian  Science,  mortal  mind  disappears." 

"Not  earlier ?;' 

"  No,  not  until  the  teaching  and  preparation 
for  the  Third  Degree  are  completed." 

"  It  is  not  until  then  that  one  is  enabled  to 
take  hold  of  Christian  Science  effectively,  and 
with  the  right  sense  of  sympathy  and  kinship, 
as  I  understand  you.  That  is  to  say,  it  could 
not  succeed  during  the  processes  of  the  Second 


i6 


Degree,  because  there  would  still  be  remains  of 
mind  left;  and  therefore — but  I  interrupted 
you.  You  were  about  to  further  explain  the 
good  results  proceeding  from  the  erosions  and 
disintegrations  effected  by  the  Third  Degree. 
It  is  very  interesting;  go  on,  please." 

"  Yes,  as  I  was  saying,  in  this  Third  Degree 
mortal  mind  disappears.  Science  so  reverses 
the  evidence  before  the  corporeal  human  senses 
as  to  make  this  scriptural  testimony  true  in  our 
hearts,  '  the  last  shall  be  first  and  the  first  shall 
be  last/  that  God  and  His  idea  may  be  to  us — 
what  divinity  really  is,  and  must  of  necessity 
be — all-inclusive. ' ' 

"It  is  beautiful.  And  with  what  exhaust 
ive  exactness  your  choice  and  arrangement  of 
words  confirm  and  establish  what  you  have 
claimed  for  the  powers  and  functions  of  the 
Third  Degree.  The  Second  could  probably 
produce  only  temporary  absence  of  mind;  it  is 
reserved  to  the  Third  to  make  it  permanent.  A 
sentence  framed  under  the  auspices  of  the  Sec 
ond  could  have  a  kind  of  meaning — a  sort  of 
deceptive  semblance  of  it — whereas  it  is  only 
under  the  magic  of  the  Third  that  that  defect 


17 

would  disappear.  Also,  without  doubt,  it  is 
the  Third  Degree  that  contributes  another  re 
markable  specialty  to  Christian  Science — viz., 
ease  and  flow  and  lavishness  of  words,  and 
rhythm  and  swing  and  smoothness.  There 
must  be  a  special  reason  for  this?" 

"Yes— God -all,  all -God,  good  God,  non- 
Matter,  Matteration,  Spirit,  Bones,  Truth." 

"That  explains  it." 

"There  is  nothing  in  Christian  Science  that 
is  not  explicable;  for  God  is  one,  Time  is  one, 
Individuality  is  one,  and  may  be  one  of  a  series, 
one  of  many,  as  an  individual  man,  individual 
horse;  whereas  God  is  one,  not  one  of  a  series, 
but  one  alone  and  without  an  equal." 

"  These  are  noble  thoughts.  They  make  one 
burn  to  know  more.  How  does  Christian 
Science  explain  the  spiritual  relation  of  sys 
tematic  duality  to  incidental  deflection?" 

"  Christian  Science  reverses  the  seeming  rela 
tion  of  Soul  and  body — as  astronomy  reverses 
the  human  perception  of  the  movement  of  the 
solar  system — and  makes  body  tributary  to  the 
Mind.  As  it  is  the  earth  which  is  in  motion, 
while  the  sun  is  at  rest,  though  in  viewing  the 


i8 

sun  rise  one  finds  it  impossible  to  believe  the 
sun  not  to  be  really  rising,  so  the  body  is  but  the 
humble  servant  of  the  restful  Mind,  though  it 
seems  otherwise  to  finite  sense;  but  we  shall 
never  understand  this  while  we  admit  that  soul 
is  in  body,  or  mind  in  matter,  and  that  man  is 
included  in  non-intelligence.  Soul  is  God,  un 
changeable  and  eternal;  and  man  coexists  with 
and  reflects  Soul,  for  the  All-in-all  is  the  Alto 
gether,  and  the  Altogether  embraces  the  All- 
one,  Soul- Mind,  Mind-Soul,  Love,  Spirit,  Bones, 
Liver,  one  of  a  series,  alone  and  without  an 
equal." 

"  What  is  the  origin  of  Christian  Science  ?  Is 
it  a  gift  of  God,  or  did  it  just  happen?" 

"  In  a  sense,  it  is  a  gift  of  God.  That  is  to  say, 
its  powers  are  from  Him,  but  the  credit  of  the 
discovery  of  the  powers  and  what  they  are  for 
is  due  to  an  American  lady." 

"  Indeed?     When  did  this  occur?" 

"  In  1866.  That  is  the  immortal  date  when 
pain  and  disease  and  death  disappeared  from 
the  earth  to  return  no  more  forever.  That  is, 
the  fancies  for  which  those  terms  stand  dis 
appeared.  The  things  themselves  had  nevei 


19 

existed;  therefore,  as  soon  as  it  was  perceived 
that  there  were  no  such  things,  they  were  ea 
sily  banished.  The  history  and  nature  of  the 
great  discovery  are  set  down  in  the  book  here, 
and—" 

"Did  the  lady  write  the  book?" 

"  Yes,  she  wrote  it  all,  herself.  The  title  is 
Science  and  Health,  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures— 
for  she  explains  the  Scriptures;  they  were  not 
understood  before.  Not  even  by  the  twelve  Dis 
ciples.  She  begins  thus — I  will  read  it  to  you." 

But  she  had  forgotten  to  bring  her  glasses. 

"  Well,  it  is  no  matter,"  she  said.  "  I  remem 
ber  the  words — indeed,  all  Christian  Scientists 
know  the  book  by  heart;  it  is  necessary  in  our 
practice.  We  should  otherwise  make  mistakes 
and  do  harm.  She  begins  thus :  *  In  the  year 
1866  I  discovered  the  Science  of  Metaphysical 
Healing,  and  named  it  Christian  Science/  And 
she  says — quite  beautifully,  I  think — *  Through 
Christian  Science,  religion  and  medicine  are  in 
spired  with  a  diviner  nature  and  essence,  fresh 
pinions  are  given  to  faith  and  understanding, 
and  thoughts  acquaint  themselves  intelligently 
with  God/  Her  very  words." 


20 


"  It  is  elegant.  And  it  is  a  fine  thought,  too 
— marrying  religion  to  medicine,  instead  of 
medicine  to  the  undertaker  in  the  old  way ;  for 
religion  and  medicine  properly  belong  to 
gether,  they  being  the  basis  of  all  spiritual 
and  physical  health.  What  kind  of  medicine 
do  you  give  for  the  ordinary  diseases,  such 


as—" 


"We  never  give  medicine  in  any  circum 
stances  whatever!  We — " 

"  But,  madam,  it  says — " 

"  I  don't  care  what  it  says,  and  I  don't  wish 
to  talk  about  it." 

"  I  am  sorry  if  I  have  offended,  but  you  see 
the  mention  seemed  in  some  way  inconsistent, 
and—" 

"There  are  no  inconsistencies  in  Christian 
Science.  The  thing  is  impossible,  for  the  Sci 
ence  is  absolute.  It  cannot  be  otherwise,  since 
it  proceeds  directly  from  the  All-in-all  and  the 
Everything-in- Which,  also  Soul,  Bones,  Truth, 
one  of  a  series,  alone  and  without  equal.  It  is 
Mathematics  purified  from  material  dross  and 
made  spiritual." 

"I  can  see  that,  but—" 


21 


"It  rests  upon  the  immovable  basis  of  an 
Apodictical  Principle." 

The  word  flattened  itself  against  my  mind  in 
trying  to  get  in,  and  disordered  me  a  little,  and 
before  I  could  inquire  into  its  pertinency,  she 
was  already  throwing  the  needed  light: 

"This  Apodictical  Principle  is  the  absolute 
Principle  of  Scientific  Mind  -  healing,  the  sov 
ereign  Omnipotence  which  delivers  the  children 
of  men  from  pain,  disease,  decay,  and  every  ill 
that  flesh  is  heir  to." 

"Surely  not  every  ill,  every  decay?" 

"Every  one;  there  are  no  exceptions;  there 
is  no  such  thing  as  decay — it  is  an  unreality,  it 
has  no  existence." 

"  But  without  your  glasses  your  failing  eye 
sight  does  not  permit  you  to — " 

"My  eyesight  cannot  fail;  nothing  can  fail; 
the  Mind  is  master,  and  the  Mind  permits  no 
retrogression." 

She  was  under  the  inspiration  of  the  Third 
Degree,  therefore  there  could  be  no  profit  in 
continuing  this  part  of  the  subject.  I  shifted 
to  other  ground  and  inquired  further  concern 
ing  the  Discoverer  of  the  Science. 


22 


"Did  the  discovery  come  suddenly,  like 
Klondike,  or  after  long  study  and  calculation, 
like  America?" 

"The  comparisons  are  not  respectful,  since 
they  refer  to  trivialities — but  let  it  pass.  I  will 
answer  in  the  Discoverer's  own  words:  'God 
had  been  graciously  fitting  me,  during  many 
years,  for  the  reception  of  a  final  revelation 
of  the  absolute  Principle  of  Scientific  Mind- 
healing." 

"Many  years.     How  many?" 

"Eighteen  centuries!" 

"All -God,  God -good,  good  -  God,  Truth, 
Bones,  Liver,  one  of  a  series,  alone  and  without 
equal — it  is  amazing!" 

"  You  may  well  say  it,  sir.  Yet  it  is  but  the 
truth.  This  American  lady,  our  revered  and 
sacred  Founder,  is  distinctly  referred  to,  and  her 
coming  prophesied,  in  the  twelfth  chapter  of 
the  Apocalypse;  she  could  not  have  been  more 
plainly  indicated  by  St.  John  without  actually 
mentioning  her  name." 

"  How  strange,  how  wonderful!" 

"  I  will  quote  her  own  words,  from  her  Key 
to  the  Scriptures :  '  The  twelfth  chapter  of  the 


23 

Apocalypse  has  a  special  suggestiveness  in  con 
nection  with  this  nineteenth  century*  There — 
do  you  note  that?  Think — note  it  well." 

"  But — what  does  it  mean?" 

"  Listen,  and  you  will  know.  I  quote  her 
inspired  words  again :  *  In  the  opening  of  the 
Sixth  Seal,  typical  of  six  thousand  years  since 
Adam,  there  is  one  distinctive  feature  which  has 
special  reference  to  the  present  age.  Thus: 

"  '  Revelation  xii.  i.  And  there  appeared  a 
great  wonder  in  heaven — a  woman  clothed  with 
the  sun,  and  the  moon  under  her  feet,  and 
upon  her  head  a  crown  of  twelve  stars/ 

"  That  is  our  Head,  our  Chief,  our  Discoverer 
of  Christian  Science — nothing  can  be  plainer, 
nothing  surer.  And  note  this: 

"  *  Revelation  xii.  6.  And  the  woman  fled 
into  the  wilderness,  where  she  had  a  place 
prepared  of  God.' 

"That  is  Boston.  I  recognize  it,  madam. 
These  are  sublime  things,  and  impressive;  I 


never  understood  these  passages  before;  please 
go  on  with  the — with  the — proofs." 
"  Very  well.     Listen : 

'  And  I  saw  another  mighty  angel  come 
down  from  heaven,  clothed  with  a  cloud;  and 
a  rainbow  was  upon  his  head,  and  his  face  was 
as  it  were  the  sun,  and  his  feet  as  pillars  of 
fire.  And  he  held  in  his  hand  a  little  book.1 

"A  little  book,  merely  a  little  book — could 
words  be  modester?  Yet  how  stupendous  its 
importance!  Do  you  know  what  book  that 
was?" 

"Wasit—" 

"I  hold  it  in  my  hand — Christian  Science!" 

"Love,  Livers,  Lights,  Bones,  Truth,  Kid 
neys,  one  of  a  series,  alone  and  without  equal — 
it  is  beyond  imagination  for  wonder!" 

"  Hear  our  Founder's  eloquent  words:  '  Then 
will  a  voice  from  harmony  cry,  "  Go  and  take 
the  little  book :  take  it  and  eat  it  up,  and  it  shall 
make  thy  belly  bitter;  but  it  shall  be  in  thy 
mouth  sweet  as  honey. ' '  Mortal,  obey  the  heav 
enly  evangel.  Take  up  Divine  Science.  Read 


25 

it  from  beginning  to  end.  Study  it,  ponder  it. 
It  will  be,  indeed,  sweet  at  its  first  taste,  when 
it  heals  you ;  but  murmur  not  over  Truth,  if  you 
find  its  digestion  bitter.'  You  now  know  the 
history  of  our  dear  and  holy  Science,  sir,  and 
that  its  origin  is  not  of  this  earth,  but  only  its 
discovery.  I  will  leave  the  book  with  you  and 
will  go,  now;  but  give  yourself  no  uneasiness — • 
I  will  give  you  absent  treatment  from  now  till  I 
go  to  bed." 


CHAPTER    III 

UNDER  the  powerful  influence  of  the  near 
treatment  and  the  absent  treatment  together, 
my  bones  were  gradually  retreating  inward  and 
disappearing  from  view.  The  good  work  took 
a  brisk  start,  now,  and  went  on  swiftly.  My 
body  was  diligently  straining  and  stretching, 
this  way  and  that,  to  accommodate  the  proc 
esses  of  restoration,  and  every  minute  or  two 
I  heard  a  dull  click  inside  and  knew  that  the 
two  ends  of  a  fracture  had  been  successfully 
joined.  This  muffled  clicking  and  gritting  and 
grinding  and  rasping  continued  during  the  next 
three  hours,  and  then  stopped — the  connections 
had  all  been  made.  All  except  dislocations; 
there  were  only  seven  of  these:  hips,  shoulders, 
knees,  neck;  so  that  was  soon  over;  one  after 
another  they  slipped  into  their  sockets  with  a 
sound  like  pulling  a  distant  cork,  and  I  jumped 
up  as  good  as  new,  as  to  framework,  and  sent 
for  the  horse-doctor. 


27 

I  was  obliged  to  do  this  because  I  had  a  stom 
ach-ache  and  a  cold  in  the  head,  and  I  was  not 
willing  to  trust  these  things  any  longer  in  the 
hands  of  a  woman  whom  I  did  not  know,  and 
in  whose  ability  to  successfully  treat  mere  dis 
ease  I  had  lost  all  confidence.  My  position  was 
justified  by  the  fact  that  the  cold  and  the  ache 
had  been  in  her  charge  from  the  first,  along 
with  the  fractures,  but  had  experienced  not  a 
shade  of  relief;  and,  indeed,  the  ache  was  even 
growing  worse  and  worse,  and  more  and  more 
bitter,  now,  probably  on  account  of  the  pro 
tracted  abstention  from  food  and  drink. 

The  horse-doctor  came,  a  pleasant  man  and 
full  of  hope  and  professional  interest  in  the 
case.  In  the  matter  of  smell  he  was  pretty  aro 
matic — in  fact,  quite  horsy — and  I  tried  to  ar 
range  with  him  for  absent  treatment,  but  it 
was  not  in  his  line,  so,  out  of  delicacy,  I  did  not 
press  it.  He  looked  at  my  teeth  and  examined 
my  hock,  and  said  my  age  and  general  condition 
were  favorable  to  energetic  measures;  there 
fore  he  would  give  me  something  to  turn  the 
stomach-ache  into  the  botts  and  the  cold  in  the 
head  into  the  blind  staggers;  then  he  should 


28 

be  on  his  own  beat  and  would  know  what  to  do. 
He  made  up  a  bucket  of  bran-mash,  and  said  a 
dipperful  of  it  every  two  hours,  alternated  with 
a  drench  with  turpentine  and  axle-grease  in  it, 
would  either  knock  my  ailments  out  of  me  in 
twenty-four  hours,  or  so  interest  me  in  other 
ways  as  to  make  me  forget  they  were  on  the 
premises.  He  administered  my  first  dose  him 
self,  then  took  his  leave,  saying  I  was  free  to 
eat  and  drink  anything  I  pleased  and  in  any 
quantity  I  liked.  But  I  was  not  hungry  any 
more,  and  did  not  care  for  food. 

I  took  up  the  Christian  Science  book  and 
read  half  of  it,  then  took  a  dipperful  of  drench 
and  read  the  other  half.  The  resulting  experi 
ences  were  full  of  interest  and  adventure.  All 
through  the  rumblings  and  grindings  and  quak- 
ings  and  effervescings  accompanying  the  evolu 
tion  of  the  ache  into  the  botts  and  the  cold  into 
the  blind  staggers  I  could  note  the  generous 
struggle  for  mastery  going  on  between  the  mash 
and  the  drench  and  the  literature ;  and  often  I 
could  tell  which  was  ahead,  and  could  easily  dis 
tinguish  the  literature  from  the  others  when 
the  others  were  separate,  though  not  when 


29 

they  were  mixed ;  for  when  a  bran-mash  and  an 
eclectic  drench  are  mixed  together  they  look 
just  like  the  Apodictical  Principle  out  on  a  lark, 
and  no  one  can  tell  it  from  that.  The  finish 
was  reached  at  last,  the  evolutions  were  com 
plete,  and  a  fine  success ,  but  I  think  that  this 
result  could  have  been  achieved  with  fewer 
materials.  I  believe  the  mash  was  necessary  to 
the  conversion  of  the  stomach-ache  into  the 
botts,  but  I  think  one  could  develop  the  blind 
staggers  out  of  the  literature  by  itself;  also,  that 
blind  staggers  produced  in  this  way  would  be  of 
a  better  quality  and  more  lasting  than  any  pro 
duced  by  the  artificial  processes  of  the  horse- 
doctor. 

For  of  all  the  strange  and  frantic  and  incom 
prehensible  and  uninterpretable  books  which 
the  imagination  of  man  has  created,  surely  this 
one  is  the  prize  sample.  It  is  written  with  a 
limitless  confidence  and  complacency,  and  with 
a  dash  and  stir  and  earnestness  which  often 
compel  the  effects  of  eloquence,  even  when  the 
words  do  not  seem  to  have  any  traceable  mean 
ing.  There  are  plenty  of  people  who  imagine 
they  understand  the  book;  I  know  this,  for  I 


3Q 

have  talked  with  them;  but  in  all  cases  they 
were  people  who  also  imagined  that  there  were 
no  such  things  as  pain,  sickness,  and  death,  and 
no  realities  in  the  world;  nothing  actually  ex 
istent  but  Mind.  It  seems  to  me  to  modify  the 
value  of  their  testimony.  When  these  people 
talk  about  Christian  Science  they  do  as  Mrs. 
Fuller  did :  they  do  not  use  their  own  language, 
but  the  book's;  they  pour  out  the  book's  showy 
incoherences,  and  leave  you  to  find  out  later 
that  they  were  not  originating,  but  merely 
quoting;  they  seem  to  know  the  volume  by 
heart,  and  to  revere  it  as  they  would  a  Bible — 
another  Bible,  perhaps  I  ought  to  say.  Plainly 
the  book  was  written  under  the  mental  desola 
tions  of  the  Third  Degree,  and  I  feel  sure  that 
none  but  the  membership  of  that  Degree  can 
discover  meanings  in  it.  When  you  read  it  you 
seem  to  be  listening  to  a  lively  and  aggressive 
and  oracular  speech  delivered  in  an  unknown 
tongue,  a  speech  whose  spirit  you  get  but  not 
the  particulars;  or,  to  change  the  figure,  you 
seem  to  be  listening  to  a  vigorous  instrument 
which  is  making  a  noise  which  it  thinks  is  a 
tune,  but  which,  to  persons  not  members  of  the 


band,  is  only  the  martial  tooting  of  a  trombone, 
and  merely  stirs  the  soul  through  the  noise,  but 
does  not  convey  a  meaning. 

The  book's  serenities  of  self-satisfaction  do 
almost  seem  to  smack  of  a  heavenly  origin — 
they  have  no  blood-kin  in  the  earth.  It  is 
more  than  human  to  be  so  placidly  certain 
about  things,  and  so  finely  superior,  and  so 
airily  content  with  one's  performance.  With 
out  ever  presenting  anything  which  may  right 
fully  be  called  by  the  strong  name  of  Evidence, 
and  sometimes  without  even  mentioning  a  rea 
son  for  a  deduction  at  all,  it  thunders  out  the 
startling  words,  "  I  have  Proved  "  so  and  so.  It 
takes  the  Pope  and  all  the  great  guns  of  his 
Church  in  battery  assembled  to  authoritatively 
settle  and  establish  the  meaning  of  a  sole  and 
single  unclarified  passage  of  Scripture,  and  this 
at  vast  cost  of  time  and  study  and  reflection, 
but  the  author  of  this  work  is  superior  to  all 
that :  she  finds  the  whole  Bible  in  an  unclarified 
condition,  and  at  small  expense  of  time  and  no 
expense  of  mental  effort  she  clarifies  it  from  lid 
to  lid,  reorganizes  and  improves  the  meanings, 
then  authoritatively  settles  and  establishes 


32 

them  with  formulas  which  you  cannot  tell  from 
"  Let  there  be  light!"  and  "  Here  you  have  it!" 
It  is  the  first  time  since  the  dawn-days  of  Crea 
tion  that  a  Voice  has  gone  crashing  through 
space  with  such  placid  and  complacent  con 
fidence  and  command.1 

1  January,  1903.  The  first  reading  of  any  book  whose 
terminology  is  new  and  strange  is  nearly  sure  to  leave  the 
reader  in  a  bewildered  and  sarcastic  state  of  mind.  But 
now  that,  during  the  past  two  months,  I  have,  by  diligence, 
gained  a  fair  acquaintanceship  with  Science  and  Health 
technicalities,  I  no  longer  find  the  bulk  of  that  work  hard 
to  understand. — M.  T. 

P.  S.  The  wisdom  harvested  from  the  foregoing 
thoughts  has  already  done  me  a  service  and  saved  me  a 
sorrow.  Nearly  a  month  ago  there  came  to  me  from  one 
of  the  universities  a  tract  by  Dr.  Edward  Anthony  Spitz- 
ka  on  the  "  Encephalic  Anatomy  of  the  Races."  I  judged 
that  my  opinion  was  desired  by  the  university,  and  I  was 
greatly  pleased  with  this  attention  and  wrote  and  said  I 
would  furnish  it  as  soon  as  I  could.  That  night  I  put  my 
plodding  and  disheartening  Christian  Science  mining  aside 
and  took  hold  of  the  matter.  I  wrote  an  eager  chapter,  and 
was  expecting  to  finish  my  opinion  the  next  day,  but  was 
called  away  for  a  week,  and  my  mind  was  soon  charged 
with  other  interests.  It  was  not  until  to-day,  after  the 
lapse  of  nearly  a  month,  that  I  happened  upon  my  En 
cephalic  chapter  again.  Meantime,  the  new  wisdom  had 
come  to  me,  and  I  read  it  with  shame.  I  recognized  that 
I  had  entered  upon  that  work  in  far  from  the  right  temper 
— far  from  the  respectful  and  judicial  spirit  which  was  its 


33 

due  of  reverence.     I  had  begun  upon  it  with  the  following 
paragraph  for  fuel: 

"FISSURES  OF  THE  PARIETAL  AND  OCCIPITAL  LOBES  (LAT 
ERAL  SURFACE). — The  Postcentral  Fissural  Complex. — In  this 
hemicerebrum,  the  postcentral  and  subcentral  are  combined  to 
form  a  continuous  fissure,  attaining  a  length  of  8.5  cm.  Dor- 
sally,  the  fissure  bifurcates,  embracing  the  gyre  indented  by  the 
caudal  limb  of  the  paracentral.  The  caudal  limb  of  the  post- 
central  is  joined  by  a  transparietal  piece.  In  all,  five  additional 
rami  spring  from  the  combined  fissure.  A  vadum  separates  it 
from  the  parietal;  another  from  the  central." 

It  humiliates  me,  now,  to  see  how  angry  I  got  over  that; 
and  how  scornful.  I  said  that  the  style  was  disgraceful; 
that  it  was  labored  and  tumultuous,  and  in  places  violent, 
that  the  treatment  was  involved  and  erratic,  and  almost, 
as  a  rule,  bewildering;  that  to  lack  of  simplicity  was 
added  a  lack  of  vocabulary ;  that  there  was  quite  too  much 
feeling  shown;  that  if  I  had  a  dog  that  would  get  so  ex 
cited  and  incoherent  over  a  tranquil  subject  like  En 
cephalic  Anatomy  I  would  not  pay  his  tax;  and  at  that 
point  I  got  excited  myself  and  spoke  bitterly  of  these 
mongrel  insanities,  and  said  a  person  might  as  well  try  to 
understand  Science  and  Health. 

I  know,  now,  where  the  trouble  was,  and  am  glad  of  the 
interruption  that  saved  me  from  sending  my  verdict  to 
the  university.  It  makes  me  cold  to  think  what  those 
people  might  have  thought  of  me. — M.  T. 


CHAPTER     IV 

No  one  doubts — certainly  not  I — that  the 
mind  exercises  a  powerful  influence  over  the 
body.  From  the  beginning  of  time,  the  sorcerer, 
the  interpreter  of  dreams,  the  fortune-teller,  the 
charlatan,  the  quack,  the  wild  medicine-man, 
the  educated  physician,  the  mesmerist,  and  the 
hypnotist  have  made  use  of  the  client's  imagi 
nation  to  help  them  in  their  work.  They  have 
all  recognized  the  potency  and  availability  of 
that  force.  Physicians  cure  many  patients 
with  a  bread  pill ;  they  know  that  where  the  dis 
ease  is  only  a  fancy,  the  patient's  confidence  in 
the  doctor  will  make  the  bread  pill  effective. 

Faith  in  the  doctor.  Perhaps  that  is  the  en 
tire  thing.  It  seems  to  look  like  it.  In  old  times 
the  King  cured  the  king's  evil  by  the  touch  of 
the  royal  hand.  He  frequently  made  extraor 
dinary  cures.  Could  his  footman  have  done  it  ? 
No — not  in  his  own  clothes.  Disguised  as  the 
King,  could  he  have  done  it?  I  think  we  may 


35 

not  doubt  it.  I  think  we  may  feel  sure  that 
it  was  not  the  King's  touch  that  made  the  cure 
in  any  instance,  but  the  patient's  faith  in  the 
efficacy  of  a  King's  touch.  Genuine  and  re 
markable  cures  have  been  achieved  through 
contact  with  the  relics  of  a  saint.  Is  it  not 
likely  that  any  other  bones  would  have  done  as 
well  if  the  substitution  had  been  concealed 
from  the  patient?  When  I  was  a  boy  a  farm 
er's  wife  who  lived  five  miles  from  our  village 
had  great  fame  as  a  faith-doctor — that  was 
what  she  called  herself.  Sufferers  came  to  her 
from  all  around,  and  she  laid  her  hand  upon 
them  and  said,  "Have  faith — it  is  all  that  is 
necessary,"  and  they  went  away  well  of  their 
ailments.  She  was  not  a  religious  woman,  and 
pretended  to  no  occult  powers.  She  said  that 
the  patient's  faith  in  her  did  the  work.  Sev 
eral  times  I  saw  her  make  immediate  cures  of 
severe  toothaches.  My  mother  was  the  pa 
tient.  In  Austria  there  is  a  peasant  who  drives 
a  great  trade  in  this  sort  of  industry,  and  has 
both  the  high  and  the  low  for  patients.  He 
gets  into  prison  every  now  and  then  for  prac 
tising  without  a  diploma,  but  his  business  is  as 


36 

brisk  as  ever  when  he  gets  out,  for  his  work  is 
unquestionably  successful  and  keeps  his  repu 
tation  high.  In  Bavaria  there  is  a  man  who 
performed  so  many  great  cures  that  he  had  to 
retire  from  his  profession  of  stage-carpentering 
in  order  to  meet  the  demand  of  his  constantly 
increasing  body  of  customers.  He  goes  on 
from  year  to  year  doing  his  miracles,  and  has 
become  very  rich.  He  pretends  to  no  religious 
helps,  no  supernatural  aids,  but  thinks  there  is 
something  in  his  make-up  which  inspires  the 
confidence  of  his  patients,  and  that  it  is  this 
confidence  which  does  the  work,  and  not  some 
mysterious  power  issuing  from  himself.1 

Within  the  last  quarter  of  a  century,  in 
America,  several  sects  of  curers  have  appeared 
under  various  names  and  have  done  notable 
things  in  the  way  of  healing  ailments  without 

1  January,  1903.  I  have  personal  and  intimate  knowl 
edge  of  the  "miraculous"  cure  of  a  case  of  paralysis  which 
had  kept  the  patient  helpless  in  bed  during  two  years,  in 
spite  of  all  that  the  best  medical  science  of  New  York 
could  do.  The  travelling  "quack"  (that  is  what  they 
called  him),  came  on  two  successive  mornings  and  lifted 
the  patient  out  of  bed  and  said  "Walk!"  and  the  patient 
walked.  That  was  the  end  of  it.  It  was  forty-one  years 
ago.  The  patient  has  walked  ever  since. — M.  T. 


37 

the  use  of  medicines.  There  are  the  Mind  Cure, 
the  Faith  Cure,  the  Prayer  Cure,  the  Mental- 
Science  Cure,  and  the  Christian-Science  Cure; 
and  apparently  they  all  do  their  miracles  with 
the  same  old,  powerful  instrument  —  the  pa 
tient's  imagination.  Differing  names,  but  no 
difference  in  the  process.  But  they  do  not 
give  that  instrument  the  credit;  each  sect 
claims  that  its  way  differs  from  the  ways  of  the 
others. 

They  all  achieve  some  cures,  there  is  no 
question  about  it;  and  the  Faith  Cure  and  the 
Prayer  Cure  probably  do  no  harm  when  they 
do  no  good,  since  they  do  not  forbid  the  pa 
tient  to  help  out  the  cure  with  medicines  if  he 
wants  to;  but  the  others  bar  medicines,  and 
claim  ability  to  cure  every  conceivable  human 
ailment  through  the  application  of  their  men 
tal  forces  alone.  There  would  seem  to  be  an 
element  of  danger  here.  It  has  the  look  of 
claiming  too  much,  I  think.  Public  confi 
dence  would  probably  be  increased  if  less  were 
claimed.1 

1  February,  1903.  I  find  that  Christian  Science  claims 
that  the  healing-force  which  it  employs  is  radically  differ- 


38 

The  Christian  Scientist  was  not  able  to  cure 
my  stomach-ache  and  my  cold;  but  the  horse- 
doctor  did  it.  This  convinces  me  that  Chris 
tian  Science  claims  too  much.  In  my  opinion 
it  ought  to  let  diseases  alone  and  confine  itself 
to  surgery.  There  it  would  have  everything 
its  own  way. 

The  horse-doctor  charged  me  thirty  kreutzers, 
and  I  paid  him;  in  fact,  I  doubled  it  and  gave 
him  a  shilling.  Mrs.  Fuller  brought  in  an 
itemized  bill  for  a  crate  of  broken  bones  mend 
ed  in  two  hundred  and  thirty-four  places — one 
dollar  per  fracture. 

"Nothing  exists  but  Mind?" 

"Nothing,"  she  answered.  "All  else  is  sub- 
stanceless,  all  else  is  imaginary." 

I  gave  her  an  imaginary  check,  and  now  she 
is  suing  me  for  substantial  dollars.  It  looks 
inconsistent. 

NOTE. — The  foregoing  chapters  appeared  originally  in 
the  Cosmopolitan  Magazine,  about  three  years  ago. — 
M.  T. 

ent  from  the  force  used  by  any  other  party  in  the  healing 
business.  I  shall  talk  about  this  towards  the  end  of  this 
work. — M.  T. 


CHAPTER     V 

LET  us  consider  that  we  are  all  partially  in 
sane.  It  will  explain  us  to  each  other;  it  will 
unriddle  many  riddles;  it  will  make  clear  and 
simple  many  things  which  are  involved  in 
haunting  and  harassing  difficulties  and  ob 
scurities  now. 

Those  of  us  who  are  not  in  the  asylum,  and 
not  demonstrably  due  there,  are  nevertheless, 
no  doubt,  insane  in  one  or  two  particulars.  I 
think  we  must  admit  this ;  but  I  think  that  we 
are  otherwise  healthy  -  minded.  I  think  that 
when  we  all  see  one  thing  alike,  it  is  evidence 
that,  as  regards  that  one  thing,  our  minds  are 
perfectly  sound.  Now  there  are  really  several 
things  which  we  do  all  see  alike;  things  which 
we  all  accept,  and  about  which  we  do  not  dis 
pute.  For  instance,  we  who  are  outside  of  the 
asylum  all  agree  that  water  seeks  its  level;  that 
the  sun  gives  light  and  heat ;  that  fire  consumes  ; 
that  fog  is  damp;  that  six  times  six  are  thirty- 


40 

six,  that  two  from  ten  leaves  eight;  that  eight 
and  seven  are  fifteen.  These  are,  perhaps,  the 
only  things  we  are  agreed  about;  but,  although 
they  are  so  few,  they  are  of  inestimable  value, 
because  they  make  an  infallible  standard  of 
sanity.  Whosoever  accepts  them  him  we  know 
to  be  substantially  sane;  sufficiently  sane;  in 
the  working  essentials,  sane.  Whoever  dis 
putes  a  single  one  of  them  him  we  know 
to  be  wholly  insane,  and  qualified  for  the 
asylum. 

Very  well,  the  man  who  disputes  none  of 
them  we  concede  to  be  entitled  to  go  at  large. 
But  that  is  concession  enough.  We  cannot  go 
any  further  than  that;  for  we  know  that  in  all 
matters  of  mere  opinion  that  same  man  is  in 
sane — just  as  insane  as  we  are;  just  as  insane 
as  Shakespeare  was.  We  know  exactly  where 
to  put  our  finger  upon  his  insanity:  it  is  where 
his  opinion  differs  from  ours. 

That  is  a  simple  rule,  and  easy  to  remember. 
When  I,  a  thoughtful  and  unbiassed  Presbyte 
rian,  examine  the  Koran,  I  know  that  beyond 
any  question  every  Mohammedan  is  insane; 
not  in  all  things,  but  in  religious  matters.  When 


4* 

a  thoughtful  and  unbiassed  Mohammedan  ex 
amines  the  Westminster  Catechism,  he  knows 
that  beyond  any  question  I  am  spiritually  in 
sane.  I  cannot  prove  to  him  that  he  is  in 
sane,  because  you  never  can  prove  anything  to 
a  lunatic — for  that  is  a  part  of  his  insanity  and 
the  evidence  of  it.  He  cannot  prove  to  me 
that  I  am  insane,  for  my  mind  has  the  same  de 
fect  that  afflicts  his.  All  Democrats  are  in 
sane,  but  not  one  of  them  knows  it;  none  but 
the  Republicans  and  Mugwumps  know  it.  All 
the  Republicans  are  insane,  but  only  the  Dem 
ocrats  and  Mugwumps  can  perceive  it.  The 
rule  is  perfect:  in  all  matters  of  opinion  our  ad 
versaries  are  insane.  When  I  look  around  me, 
I  am  often  troubled  to  see  how  many  people  are 
mad.  To  mention  only  a  few: 

The  Atheist,  The  Theosophists, 

The  Infidel,  The  Swedenborgians, 

The  Agnostic,  The  Shakers, 

The  Baptist,  The  Millerites, 

The  Methodist,  The  Mormons, 
The  Christian   Scien-   The  Laurence  Oliphant 
tist,  Harrisites. 


42 

The  Catholic,  and  the  The  Grand  Lama's  peo- 

115  Christian  sects,  pie, 

the     Presbyterian  The  Monarchists, 

excepted,  The  Imperialists, 

The  72  Mohammedan  The  Democrats, 

sects,  The   Republicans    (but 

The  Buddhist,  not  the  Mugwumps), 

The  Blavatsky-Budd-  The  Mind-Curists, 

hist,  The  Faith-Curists, 

The  Nationalist,  The      Mental      Scien- 

The  Confucian,  tists, 

The  Spiritualist,  The  Allopaths, 

The  2000  East  Indian  The  Homoeopaths, 

sects,  The  Electropaths, 

The  Peculiar  People,     The  

But  there's  no  end  to  the  list;  there  are  mill 
ions  of  them!  And  all  insane;  each  in  his  own 
way;  insane  as  to  his  pet  fad  or  opinion,  but 
otherwise  sane  and  rational. 

This  should  move  us  to  be  charitable  towards 
one  another's  lunacies.  I  recognize  that  in  his 
special  belief  the  Christian  Scientist  is  insane, 
because  he  does  not  believe  as  I  do;  but  I  hail 
him  as  my  mate  and  fellow,  because  I  am  as  in- 


43 

sane  as  he — insane  from  his  point  of  view,  and 
his  point  of  view  is  as  authoritative  as  mine  and 
worth  as  much.  That  is  to  say,  worth  a  brass 
farthing.  Upon  a  great  religious  or  political 
question,  the  opinion  of  the  dullest  head  in  the 
world  is  worth  the  same  as  the  opinion  of  the 
brightest  head  in  the  world— a  brass  farthing. 
How  do  we  arrive  at  this?  It  is  simple.  The 
affirmative  opinion  of  a  stupid  man  is  neutral 
ized  by  the  negative  opinion  of  his  stupid 
neighbor — no  decision  is  reached;  the  affirma 
tive  opinion  of  the  intellectual  giant  Gladstone 
is  neutralized  by  the  negative  opinion  of  the  in 
tellectual  giant  Newman — no  decision  is  reach 
ed.  Opinions  that  prove  nothing  are,  of  course, 
without  value — any  but  a  dead  person  knows 
that  much.  This  obliges  us  to  admit  the  truth 
of  the -unpalatable  proposition  just  mentioned 
above — that,  in  disputed  matters  political  and 
religious,  one  man's  opinion  is  worth  no  more 
than  his  peer's,  and  hence  it  follows  that  no 
man's  opinion  possesses  any  real  value.  It  is  a 
humbling  thought,  but  there  is  no  way  to  get 
around  it:  all  opinions  upon  these  great  sub 
jects  are  brass-farthing  opinions. 


44 

It  is  a  mere  plain,  simple  fact — as  clear  and 
as  certain  as  that  eight  and  seven  make  fif 
teen.  And  by  it  we  recognize  that  we  are  all 
insane,  as  concerns  those  matters.  If  we  were 
sane,  we  should  all  see  a  political  or  religious 
doctrine  alike;  there  would  be  no  dispute:  it 
would  be  a  case  of  eight  and  seven — just  as  it 
is  in  heaven,  where  all  are  sane  and  none  in 
sane.  There  there  is  but  one  religion,  one  be 
lief;  the  harmony  is  perfect;  there  is  never  a 
discordant  note. 

Under  protection  of  these  preliminaries,  I 
suppose  I  may  now  repeat  without  offence  that 
the  Christian  Scientist  is  insane.  I  mean  him 
no  discourtesy,  and  I  am  not  charging — nor 
even  imagining — that  he  is  insaner  than  the 
rest  of  the  human  race.  I  think  he  is  more 
picturesquely  insane  than  some  of  us.  At  the 
same  time,  I  am  quite  sure  that  in  one  impor 
tant  and  splendid  particular  he  is  much  saner 
than  is  the  vast  bulk  of  the  race. 

Why  is  he  insane?  I  told  you  before:  it  is 
because  his  opinions  are  not  ours.  I  know  of 
no  other  reason,  and  I  do  not  need  any  other; 
it  is  the  only  way  we  have  of  discovering  in- 


45 

sanity  when  it  is  not  violent.  It  is  merely  the 
picturesqueness  of  his  insanity  that  makes  it 
more  interesting  than  my  kind  or  yours.  For 
instance,  consider  his  "little  book";  the  "little 
book  "  exposed  in  the  sky  eighteen  centuries  ago 
by  the  flaming  angel  of  the  Apocalypse,  and 
handed  down  in  our  day  to  Mrs.  Mary  Baker  G. 
Eddy,  of  New  Hampshire,  and  translated  by 
her,  word  for  word,  into  English  (with  help  of 
a  polisher),  and  now  published  and  distributed 
in  hundreds  of  editions  by  her  at  a  clear  profit 
per  volume,  above  cost,  of  seven  hundred  per 
cent.  I1 — a  profit  which  distinctly  belongs  to  the 
angel  of  the  Apocalypse,  and  let  him  collect  it 
if  he  can;  a  "little  book"  which  the  C.  S.  very 
frequently  calls  by  just  that  name,  and  always 
enclosed  in  quotation-marks  to  keep  its  high  or 
igin  exultantly  in  mind;  a  "little  book"  which 
"explains"  and  reconstructs  and  new -paints 
and  decorates  the  Bible,  and  puts  a  mansard 


1  February,  1903.  This  has  been  disputed  by  novices. 
It  is  not  possible  that  the  copy  possessed  by  me  could  have 
cost  above  thirty-seven  and  a  half  cents.  I  have  been  a 
printer  and  book-maker  myself.  I  shall  go  into  some  par 
ticulars  concerning  this  matter  in  a  later  chapter. — M.  T. 


46 

roof  on  it  and  a  lightning-rod  and  all  the  other 
modern  improvements;  a  "little  book"  which 
for  the  present  affects  to  travel  in  yoke  with 
the  Bible  and  be  friendly  to  it,  and  within  half 
a  century  will  hitch  the  Bible  in  the  rear  and 
thenceforth  travel  tandem,  itself  in  the  lead, 
in  the  coming  great  march  of  Christian  Scien- 
tism  through  the  Protestant  dominions  of  the 
planet. 


CHAPTER     VI 

"  Hungry  ones  throng  to  hear  the  Bible  read  in  con 
nection  with  the  text-book  of  Christian  Science,  Science 
and  Health,  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures,  by  Mary  Baker 
G.  Eddy.  These  are  our  only  preachers.  They  are  the 
word  of  God." — Christian  Science  Journal,  October, 
1898. 

Is  that  picturesque  ?  A  lady  has  told  me  that 
in  a  chapel  of  the  Mosque  in  Boston  there  is  a 
picture  or  image  of  Mrs.  Eddy,  and  that  before 
it  burns  a  never-extinguished  light.1  Is  that 
picturesque  ?  How  long  do  you  think  it  will  be 
before  the  Christian  Scientist  will  be  worship 
ping  that  picture  or  image  and  praying  to  it? 
How  long  do  you  think  it  will  be  before  it  is 
claimed  that  Mrs.  Eddy  is  a  Redeemer,  a  Christ, 
and  Christ's  equal?2  Already  her  army  of  dis 
ciples  speak  of  her  reverently  as  "  Our  Mother." 

1  February,  1903.     There  is  a  dispute  about  that  pict 
ure.     I  will  render  justice  concerning  it  in  the  new  half  of 
this  book.— M.  T. 

2  This  suggestion  has  been  scorned.     I  will  examine  the 
matter  in  the  new  half  of  the  book. — M.  T. 


48 

How  long  will  it  be  before  they  place  her  on  the 
steps  of  the  Throne  beside  the  Virgin — and, 
later,  a  step  higher?  First,  Mary  the  Virgin 
and  Mary  the  Matron;  later,  with  a  change  of 
precedence,  Mary  the  Matron  and  Mary  the 
Virgin.  Let  the  artist  get  ready  with  his  canvas 
and  his  brushes;  the  new  Renaissance  is  on  its 
way,  and  there  will  be  money  in  altar-can 
vases — a  thousand  times  as  much  as  the  Popes 
and  their  Church  ever  spent  on  the  Old  Masters; 
for  their  riches  were  poverty  as  compared  with 
what  is  going  to  pour  into  the  treasure-chest  of 
the  Christian-Scientist  Papacy  by-and-by,  let 
us  not  doubt  it.  We  will  examine  the  financial 
outlook  presently  and  see  what  it  promises.  A 
favorite  subject  of  the  new  Old  Master  will  be 
the  first  verse  of  the  twelfth  chapter  of  Reve 
lation — a  verse  which  Mrs.  Eddy  says  (in  her 
Annex  to  the  Scriptures)  has  "  one  distinctive 
feature  which  has  special  reference  to  the  pres 
ent  age" — and  to  her,  as  is  rather  pointedly 
indicated: 

"And  there  appeared  a  great  wonder  in 
heaven;  a  woman  clothed  with  the  sun,  and 
the  moon  under  her  feet,"  etc. 


49 

The  woman  clothed  with  the  sun  will  be  a 
portrait  of  Mrs.  Eddy. 

Is  it  insanity  to  believe  that  Christian  Scien- 
tism  is  destined  to  make  the  most  formidable 
show  that  any  new  religion  has  made  in  the 
world  since  the  birth  and  spread  of  Moham 
medanism,  and  that  within  a  century  from 
now  it  may  stand  second  to  Rome  only,  in  num 
bers  and  power  in  Christendom? 

If  this  is  a  wild  dream  it  will  not  be  easy  to 
prove  it  so  just  yet,  I  think.  There  seems 
argument  that  it  may  come  true.  The  Chris 
tian-Science  ''boom,"  proper,  is  not  yet  five 
years  old;  yet  already  it  has  two  hundred  and 
fifty  churches.1 

It  has  its  start,  you  see,  and  it  is  a  phenom 
enally  good  one.  Moreover,  it  is  latterly  spread 
ing  with  a  constantly  accelerating  swiftness. 
It  has  a  better  chance  to  grow  and  prosper  and 
achieve  permanency  than  any  other  existing 
"  ism  " ;  for  it  has  more  to  offer  than  any  other. 
The  past  teaches  us  that  in  order  to  succeed,  a 

1  February,  1903.  Through  misinformation  I  doubled 
those  figures  when  I  wrote  this  chapter  four  years  ago. — 
M.  T. 


50 

movement  like  this  must  not  be  a  mere  philos 
ophy,  it  must  be  a  religion;  also,  that  it  must 
not  claim  entire  originality,  but  content  itself 
with  passing  for  an  improvement  on  an  exist 
ing  religion,  and  show  its  hand  later,  when 
strong  and  prosperous — like  Mohammedanism. 

Next,  there  must  be  money  —  and  plenty 
of  it. 

Next,  the  power  and  authority  and  capital 
must  be  concentrated  in  the  grip  of  a  small  and 
irresponsible  clique,  with  nobody  outside  priv 
ileged  to  ask  questions  or  find  fault. 

Next,  as  before  remarked,  it  must  bait  its 
hook  with  some  new  and  attractive  advan 
tages  over  the  baits  offered  by  its  compet 
itors. 

A  new  movement  equipped  with  some  of 
these  endowments — like  spiritualism,  for  in 
stance — may  count  upon  a  considerable  suc 
cess;  a  new  movement  equipped  with  the  bulk 
of  them — like  Mohammedanism,  for  instance — 
may  count  upon  a  widely  extended  conquest. 
Mormonism  had  all  the  requisites  but  one — it 
had  nothing  new  and  nothing  valuable  to  bait 
with.  Spiritualism  lacked  the  important  de- 


tail  of  concentration  of  money  and  authority 
in  the  hands  of  an  irresponsible  clique. 

The  above  equipment  is  excellent,  admirable, 
powerful,  but  not  perfect.  There  is  yet  an 
other  detail  which  is  worth  the  whole  of  it  put 
together — and  more;  a  detail  which  has  never 
been  joined  (in  the  beginning  of  a  religious 
movement)  to  a  supremely  good  working  equip 
ment  since  the  world  began,  until  now:  a  new 
personage  to  worship.1  Christianity  had  the 
Saviour,  but  at  first  and  for  generations  it  lack 
ed  money  and  concentrated  power.  In  Mrs. 
Eddy,  Christian  Science  possesses  the  new  per 
sonage  for  worship,  and  in  addition — here  in 
the  very  beginning — a  working  equipment  that 
has  not  a  flaw  in  it.  In  the  beginning,  Mo 
hammedanism  had  no  money;  and  it  has  never 
had  anything  to  offer  its  client  but  heaven — • 
nothing  here  below  that  was  valuable.  In  ad 
dition  to  heaven  hereafter,  Christian  Science 
has  present  health  and  a  cheerful  spirit  to  offer; 
and  in  comparison  with  this  bribe  all  other  this- 

1  That  has  been  disputed  by  a  Christian-Science  friend. 
This  surprises  me.  I  will  examine  this  detail  in  the  new 
half  of  the  book.— M.  T. 


52 

world  bribes  are  poor  and  cheap.    You  recognize 
that  this  estimate  is  admissible,  do  you  not? 

To  whom  does  Bellamy's  "  Nationalism  "  ap 
peal  ?  Necessarily  to  the  few :  people  who  read 
and  dream,  and  are  compassionate,  and  troubled 
for  the  poor  and  the  hard-driven.  To  whom 
does  Spiritualism  appeal?  Necessarily  to  the 
few;  its  "boom"  has  lasted  for  half  a  century, 
and  I  believe  it  claims  short  of  four  millions  of 
adherents  in  America.  Who  are  attracted  by 
Swedenborgianism  and  some  of  the  other  fine 
and  delicate  "  isms  "  ?  The  few  again :  educated 
people,  sensitively  organized,  with  superior 
mental  endowments,  who  seek  lofty  planes  of 
thought  and  find  their  contentment  there.  And 
who  are  attracted  by  Christian  Science?  There 
is  no  limit ;  its  field  is  horizonless ;  its  appeal  is  as 
universal  as  is  the  appeal  of  Christianity  itself. 
It  appeals  to  the  rich,  the  poor,  the  high,  the 
low,  the  cultured,  the  ignorant,  the  gifted,  the 
stupid,  the  modest,  the  vain,  the  wise,  the  silly, 
the  soldier,  the  civilian,  the  hero,  the  coward, 
the  idler,  the  worker,  the  godly,  the  godless,  the 
freeman,  the  slave,  the  adult,  the  child;  they 
who  are  ailing  in  body  or  mind,  they  who  have 


53 

friends  that  are  ailing  in  body  or  mind.  To  mass 
it  in  a  phrase,  its  clientage  is  the  Human  Race. 
Will  it  march?  I  think  so. 

Remember  its  principal  great  offer:  to  rid  the 
Race  of  pain  and  disease.  Can  it  do  so?  In 
large  measure,  yes.  How  much  of  the  pain 
and  disease  in  the  world  is  created  by  the  imag 
inations  of  the  sufferers,  and  then  kept  alive  by 
those  same  imaginations?  Four-fifths?  Not 
anything  short  of  that,  I  should  think.  Can 
Christian  Science  banish  that  four-fifths?  I 
think  so.  Can  any  other  (organized)  force  do 
it?  None  that  I  know  of.  Would  this  be  a 
new  world  when  that  was  accomplished?  And 
a  pleasanter  one — for  us  well  people,  as  well  as 
for  those  fussy  and  fretting  sick  ones?  Would 
it  seem  as  if  there  was  not  as  much  gloomy 
weather  as  there  used  to  be?  I  think  so. 

In  the  mean  time,  would  the  Scientist  kill  off 
a  good  many  patients  ?  I  think  so.  More  than 
get  killed  off  now  by  the  legalized  methods?  I 
will  take  up  that  question  presently. 

At  present,  I  wish  to  ask  you  to  examine 
some  of  the  Scientist's  performances,  as  regis 
tered  in  his  magazine,  The  Christian  Science 


54 

Journal — October  number,  1898.  First,  a  Bap 
tist  clergyman  gives  us  this  true  picture  of  "  the 
average  orthodox  Christian" — and  he  could 
have  added  that  it  is  a  true  picture  of  the  aver 
age  (civilized)  human  being: 

"He  is  a  worried  and  fretted  and  fearful 
man;  afraid  of  himself  and  his  propensities, 
afraid  of  colds  and  fevers,  afraid  of  treading  on 
serpents  or  drinking  deadly  things." 

Then  he  gives  us  this  contrast: 

"  The  average  Christian  Scientist  has  put  all 
anxiety  and  fretting  under  his  feet.  He  does 
have  a  victory  over  fear  and  care  that  is  not 
achieved  by  the  average  orthodox  Christian." 

He  has  put  all  anxiety  and  fretting  under  his 
feet.  What  proportion  of  your  earnings  or  in 
come  would  you  be  willing  to  pay  for  that  frame 
of  mind,  year  in,  year  out?  It  really  outvalues 
any  price  that  can  be  put  upon  it.  Where 
can  you  purchase  it,  at  any  outlay  of  any 
sort,  in  any  Church  or  out  of  it,  except  the 
Scientist's? 


55 

Well,  it  is  the  anxiety  and  fretting  about 
colds,  and  fevers,  and  draughts,  and  getting  our 
feet  wet,  and  about  forbidden  food  eaten  in 
terror  of  indigestion,  that  brings  on  the  cold 
and  the  fever  and  the  indigestion  and  the  most 
of  our  other  ailments;  and  so,  if  the  Science 
can  banish  that  anxiety  from  the  vorld  I  think 
it  can  reduce  the  world's  disease  and  pain  about 
four-fifths.1 

In  this  October  number  many  of  the  redeem 
ed  testify  and  give  thanks;  and  not  coldly,  but 
with  passionate  gratitude.  As  a  rule  they  seem 
drunk  with  health,  and  with  the  surprise  of  it, 
the  wonder  of  it,  the  unspeakable  glory  and 
splendor  of  it,  after  a  long,  sober  spell  spent  in 
inventing  imaginary  diseases  and  concreting 
them  with  doctor-stuff.  The  first  witness  tes 
tifies  that  when  "this  most  beautiful  Truth 
first  dawned  on  him"  he  had  "nearly  all  the 
ills  that  flesh  is  heir  to  " ;  that  those  he  did  not 

1  February,  1903.  In  a  letter  to  me,  a  distinguished 
New  York  physician  finds  fault  with  this  notion.  If  four- 
fifths  of  our  pains  and  diseases  are  not  the  result  of  un 
wholesome  fears  and  imaginings,  the  Science  has  a  smaller 
field  than  I  was  guessing;  but  I  still  think  four-fifths  is  a 
sound  guess. — M.  T. 


56 

have  he  thought  he  had — and  this  made  the 
tale  about  complete.  What  was  the  natural 
result?  Why,  he  was  a  dump-pit  "for  all  the 
doctors,  druggists,  and  patent  medicines  of  the 
country. "  Christian  Science  came  to  his  help, 
and  ""the  old  sick  conditions  passed  away," 
and  along  with  them  the  "dismal  forebod 
ings  "  which  he  had  been  accustomed  to  em 
ploy  in  conjuring  up  ailments.  And  so  he  was 
a  healthy  and  cheerful  man,  now,  and  aston 
ished. 

But  I  am  not  astonished,  for  from  other 
sources  I  know  what  must  have  been  his  meth 
od  of  applying  Christian  Science.  If  I  am  in 
the  right,  he  watchfully  and  diligently  diverted 
his  mind  from  unhealthy  channels  and  compelled 
it  to  travel  in  healthy  ones.  Nothing  contrivable 
by  human  invention  could  be  more  formidably 
effective  than  that,  in  banishing  imaginary  ail 
ments  and  in  closing  the  entrances  against  sub 
sequent  applicants  of  their  breed.  I  think  his 
method  was  to  keep  saying,  "  I  am  well!  I  am 
sound!— sound  and  well!  well  and  sound!  Per 
fectly  sound,  perfectly  well!  I  have  no  pain; 
there's  no  such  thing  as  pain!  I  have  no  dis- 


57 

ease;  there's  no  such  thing  as  disease!  Noth 
ing  is  real  but  Mind;  all  is  Mind,  All-Good- 
Good-Good,  Life,  Soul,  Liver,  Bones,  one  of  a 
series,  ante  and  pass  the  buck!" 

I  do  not  mean  that  that  was  exactly  the 
formula  used,  but  that  it  doubtless  contains 
the  spirit  of  it.  The  Scientist  would  attach 
value  to  the  exact  formula,  no  doubt,  and  to  the 
religious  spirit  in  which  it  was  used.  I  should 
think  that  any  formula  that  would  divert  the 
mind  from  unwholesome  channels  and  force  it 
into  healthy  ones  would  answer  every  purpose 
with  some  people,  though  not  with  all.  I 
think  it  most  likely  that  a  very  religious 
man  would  find  the  addition  of  the  relig 
ious  spirit  a  powerful  reinforcement  in  his 
case. 

The  second  witness  testifies  that  the  Sci 
ence  banished  "an  old  organic  trouble,"  which 
the  doctor  and  the  surgeon  had  been  nurs 
ing  with  drugs  and  the  knife  for  seven 
years. 

He  calls  it  his  "claim."  A  surface-miner 
would  think  it  was  not  his  claim  at  all,  but  the 
property  of  the  doctor  and  his  pal  the  surgeon 


— for  he  would  be  misled  by  that  word,  which 
is  Christian-Science  slang  for  "ailment."  The 
Christian  Scientist  has  no  ailment ;  to  him  there 
is  no  such  thing,  and  he  will  not  use  the  hateful 
word.  All  that  happens  to  him  is  that  upon 
his  attention  an  imaginary  disturbance  some 
times  obtrudes  itself  which  claims  to  be  an  ail 
ment  but  isn't. 

This  witness  offers  testimony  for  a  clergy 
man  seventy  years  old  who  had  preached  forty 
years  in  a  Christian  church,  and  has  now  gone 
over  to  the  new  sect.  He  was  "  almost  blind 
and  deaf."  He  was  treated  by  the  C.  S. 
method,  and  "when  he  heard  the  voice  of 
Truth  he  saw  spiritually."  Saw  spiritually? 
It  is  a  little  indefinite;  they  had  better  treat 
him  again.  Indefinite  testimonies  might  prop 
erly  be  waste  -  basketed,  since  there  is  evi 
dently  no  lack  of  definite  ones  procurable; 
but  this  C.  S.  magazine  is  poorly  edited, 
and  so  mistakes  of  this  kind  must  be  ex 
pected. 

The  next  witness  is  a  soldier  of  the  Civil  War. 
When  Christian  Science  found  him,  he  had  in 
stock  the  following  claims : 


„} 


59 

Indigestion,  Atrophy  of  the  muscles 

Rheumatism,  of 

Catarrh,  Arms, 

Chalky  deposits  in  Shoulders, 

Shoulder-joints, }   Stiffness    of   all    those 

Arm-joints,  >      joints, 

Hand-joints,  J   Excruciating    pains 

Insomnia,  most  of  the  time. 

These  claims  have  a  very  substantial  sound. 
They  came  of  exposure  in  the  campaigns.  The 
doctors  did  all  they  could,  but  it  was  little. 
Prayers  were  tried,  but  "  I  never  realized  any 
physical  relief  from  that  source."  After  thirty 
years  of  torture,  he  went  to  a  Christian  Scien 
tist  and  took  an  hour's  treatment  and  went 
home  painless.  Two  days  later,  he  "  began  to 
eat  like  a  well  man."  Then  "the  claims  van 
ished — some  at  once,  others  more  gradually  " ; 
finally,  "  they  have  almost  entirely  disappear 
ed."  And — a  thing  which  is  of  still  greater 
value — he  is  now  "  contented  and  happy.'1  That 
is  a  detail  which,  as  earlier  remarked,  is  a  Scien 
tist-Church  specialty.  And,  indeed,  one  may 
go  further  and  assert  with  little  or  no  exaggera- 


6o 


tion  that  it  is  a  Christian-Science  monopoly. 
With  thirty-one  years'  effort,  the  Methodist 
Church  had  not  succeeded  in  furnishing  it  to 
this  harassed  soldier. 

And  so  the  tale  goes  on.  Witness  after  wit 
ness  bulletins  his  claims,  declares  their  prompt 
abolishment,  and  gives  Mrs.  Eddy's  Discovery 
the  praise.  Milk-leg  is  cured;  nervous  prostra 
tion  is  cured;  consumption  is  cured;  and  St. 
Vitus's  dance  is  made  a  pastime.  Even  with 
out  a  fiddle.  And  now  and  then  an  interesting 
new  addition  to  the  Science  slang  appears  on 
the  page.  We  have  "  demonstrations  over 
chilblains"  and  such  things.  It  seems  to  be  a 
curtailed  way  of  saying  "  demonstrations  of  the 
power  of  Christian-Science  Truth  over  the  fic 
tion  which  masquerades  under  the  name  of  Chil 
blains.  "  The  children,  as  well  as  the  adults, 
share  in  the  blessings  of  the  Science.  "  Through 
the  study  of  the  '  little  book '  they  are  learning 
how  to  be  healthful,  peaceful,  and  wise."  Some 
times  they  are  cured  of  their  little  claims  by  the 
professional  healer,  and  sometimes  more  ad 
vanced  children  say  over  the  formula  and  cure 
themselves. 


6i 

A  little  Far- Western  girl  of  nine,  equipped 
with  an  adult  vocabulary,  states  her  age  and 
says,  "  I  thought  I  would  write  a  demonstration 
to  you. ' '  She  had  a  claim,  derived  from  getting 
flung  over  a  pony's  head  and  landed  on  a  rock- 
pile.  She  saved  herself  from  disaster  by  re 
membering  to  say  "  God  is  All "  while  she  was 
in  the  air.  I  couldn't  have  done  it.  I  shouldn't 
even  have  thought  of  it.  I  should  have  been 
too  excited.  Nothing  but  Christian  Science 
could  have  enabled  that  child  to  do  that  calm 
and  thoughtful  and  judicious  thing  in  those  cir 
cumstances.  She  came  down  on  her  head,  and 
by  all  the  rules  she  should  have  broken  it;  but 
the  intervention  of  the  formula  prevented  that, 
so  the  only  claim  resulting  was  a  blackened  eye. 
Monday  morning  it  was  still  swollen  and  shut. 
At  school  "it  hurt  pretty  badly — that  is,  it 
seemed  to."  So  "I  was  excused,  and  went 
down  to  the  basement  and  said,  'Now  I  am 
depending  on  mamma  instead  of  God,  and  I 
will  depend  on  God  instead  of  mamma/  "  No 
doubt  this  would  have  answered;  but,  to  make 
sure,  she  added  Mrs.  Eddy  to  the  team  and  re 
cited  "the  Scientific  Statement  of  Being," 


62 

which  is  one  of  the  principal  incantations,  I 
judge.  Then  "  I  felt  my  eye  opening."  Why, 
dear,  it  would  have  opened  an  oyster.  I  think 
it  is  one  of  the  touchingest  things  in  child-his 
tory,  that  pious  little  rat  down  cellar  pumping 
away  at  the  Scientific  Statement  of  Being. 

There  is  a  page  about  another  good  child — 
little  Gordon.  Little  Gordon  "came  into  the 
world  without  the  assistance  of  surgery  or  an 
aesthetics/'  He  was  a  "demonstration."  A 
painless  one;  therefore,  his  coming  evoked  "  joy 
and  thankfulness  to  God  and  the  Discoverer  of 
Christian  Science."  It  is  a  noticeable  feature 
of  this  literature — the  so  frequent  linking  to 
gether  of  the  Two  Beings  in  an  equal  bond;  also 
of  Their  Two  Bibles.  When  little  Gordon  was 
two  years  old,  "he  was  playing  horse  on  the 
bed,  where  I  had  left  my  *  little  book.'  I  no 
ticed  him  stop  in  his  play,  take  the  book  care 
fully  in  his  little  hands,  kiss  it  softly,  then  look 
about  for  the  highest  place  of  safety  his  arms 
could  reach,  and  put  it  there."  This  pious  act 
filled  the  mother  "  with  such  a  train  of  thought 
as  I  had  never  experienced  before.  I  thought 
of  the  sweet  mother  of  long  ago  who  kept  things 


63 

in  her  heart,"  etc.  It  is  a  bold  comparison; 
however,  unconscious  profanations  are  about 
as  common  in  the  mouths  of  the  lay  member 
ship  of  the  new  Church  as  are  frank  and  open 
ones  in  the  mouths  of  its  consecrated  chiefs. 

Some  days  later,  the  family  library — Chris 
tian-Science  books — was  lying  in  a  deep-seated 
window.  This  was  another  chance  for  the  holy 
child  to  show  off.  He  left  his  play  and  went 
there  and  pushed  all  the  books  to  one  side,  ex 
cept  the  Annex.  "It  he  took  in  both  hands, 
slowly  raised  it  to  his  lips,  then  removed  it  care 
fully,  and  seated  himself  in  the  window."  It 
had  seemed  to  the  mother  too  wonderful  to  be 
true,  that  first  time ;  but  now  she  was  convinced 
that  "neither  imagination  nor  accident  had 
anything  to  do  with  it."  Later,  little  Gordon 
let  the  author  of  his  being  see  him  do  it.  After 
that  he  did  it  frequently;  probably  every  time 
anybody  was  looking.  I  would  rather  have 
that  child  than  a  chromo.  If  this  tale  has  any 
object,  it  is  to  intimate  that  the  inspired  book 
was  supernaturally  able  to  convey  a  sense  of  its 
sacred  and  awful  character  to  this  innocent  lit 
tle  creature,  without  the  intervention  of  outside 


aids.  The  magazine  is  not  edited  with  high- 
priced  discretion.  The  editor  has  a  "claim," 
and  he  ought  to  get  it  treated. 

Among  other  witnesses  there  is  one  who  had 
a  "  jumping  toothache,"  which  several  times 
tempted  her  to  "  believe  that  there  was  sensa 
tion  in  matter,  but  each  time  it  was  overcome 
by  the  power  of  Truth."  She  would  not  allow 
the  dentist  to  use  cocaine,  but  sat  there  and  let 
him  punch  and  drill  and  split  and  crush  the 
tooth,  and  tear  and  slash  its  liberations,  and 
pull  out  the  nerve,  and  dig  out  fragments  of 
bone ;  and  she  wouldn't  once  confess  that  it  hurt. 
And  to  this  day  she  thinks  it  didn't,  and  I  have 
not  a  doubt  that  she  is  nine-tenths  right,  and 
that  her  Christian-Science  faith  did  her  better 
service  than  she  couldhave  gotten  out  of  cocaine. 

There  is  an  account  of  a  boy  who  got  broken 
all  up  into  small  bits  by  an  accident,  but  said 
over  the  Scientific  Statement  of  Being,  or  some 
of  the  other  incantations,  and  got  well  and 
sound  without  having  suffered  any  real  pain 
and  without  the  intrusion  of  a  surgeon. 

Also,  there  is  an  account  of  the  restoration 
to  perfect  health,  in  a  single  night,  of  a  fatally 


65 

injured  horse,  by  the  application  of  Christian 
Science.  I  can  stand  a  good  deal,  but  I  recog 
nize  that  the  ice  is  getting  thin,  here.  That 
horse  had  as  many  as  fifty  claims;  how  could 
he  demonstrate  over  them?  Could  he  do  the 
All -Good,  Good -Good,  Good -Gracious,  Liver, 
Bones,  Truth,  All  down  but  Nine,  Set  them  up 
on  the  Other  Alley  ?  Could  he  intone  the  Sci 
entific  Statement  of  Being?  Now,  could  he? 
Wouldn't  it  give  him  a  relapse?  Let  us  draw 
the  line  at  horses.  Horses  and  furniture. 

There  is  plenty  of  other  testimonies  in  the 
magazine,  but  these  quoted  samples  will  an 
swer.  They  show  the  kind  of  trade  the  Science 
is  driving.  Now  we  come  back  to  the  question, 
Does  the  Science  kill  a  patient  here  and  there 
and  now  and  then  ?  We  must  concede  it.  Does 
it  compensate  for  this  ?  I  am  persuaded  that  it 
can  make  a  plausible  showing  in  that  direction. 
For  instance :  when  it  lays  its  hand  upon  a  sol 
dier  who  has  suffered  thirty  years  of  helpless 
torture  and  makes  him  whole  in  body  and  mind, 
what  is  the  actual  sum  of  that  achievement? 
This,  I  think:  that  it  has  restored  to  life  a  sub 
ject  who  had  essentially  died  ten  deaths  a  year 


66 


for  thirty  years,  and  each  of  them  a  long  and 
painful  one.  But  for  its  interference  that  man 
in  the  three  years  which  have  since  elapsed, 
would  have  essentially  died  thirty  times  more. 
There  are  thousands  of  young  people  in  the  land 
who  are  now  ready  to  enter  upon  a  life -long 
death  similar  to  that  man's.  Every  time  the 
Science  captures  one  of  these  and  secures  to  him 
life-long  immunity  from  imagination-manufact 
ured  disease,  it  may  plausibly  claim  that  in  his 
person  it  has  saved  three  hundred  lives.  Mean 
time,  it  will  kill  a  man  every  now  and  then.  But 
no  matter,  it  will  still  be  ahead  on  the  credit  side. 


NOTE. — I  have  received  several  letters  (two  from  edu 
cated  and  ostensibly  intelligent  persons),  which  contained, 
in  substance,  this  protest:  "I  don't  object  to  men  and 
women  chancing  their  lives  with  these  people,  but  it  is  a 
burning  shame  that  the  law  should  allow  them  to  trust 
their  helpless  little  children  in  their  deadly  hands." 
Isn't  it  touching?  Isn't  it  deep?  Isn't  it  modest?  It  is 
as  if  the  person  said:  "  I  know  that  to  a  parent  his  child  is 
the  core  of  his  heart,  the  apple  of  his  eye,  a  possession  so 
dear,  so  precious  that  he  will  trust  its  life  in  no  hands  but 
those  which  he  believes,  with  all  his  soul,  to  be  the  very  best 
and  the  very  safest,  but  it  is  a  burning  shame  that  the  law 
does  not  require  him  to  come  to  me  to  ask  what  kind  of 
healer  I  will  allow  him  to  call."  The  public  is  merely  a 
multiplied  ' '  me. ' ' — M.  T. 


CHAPTER     VII1 

"We  consciously  declare  that  Science  and  Health,  with 
Key  to  the  Scriptures,  was  foretold,  as  well  as  -its  author, 
Mary  Baker  Eddy,  in  Revelation  x.  She  is  the  'mighty 
angel,'  or  God's  highest  thought  to  this  age  (verse  i),  giv 
ing  us  the  spiritual  interpretation  of  the  Bible  in  the  '  little 
book  open'  (verse  2).  Thus  we  prove  that  Christian 
Science  is  the  second  coming  of  Christ — Truth — Spirit." — 
Lecture  by  Dr.  George  Tomkins,  D.D.  C.S. 

THERE  you  have  it  in  plain  speech.  She  is  the 
mighty  angel ;  she  is  the  divinely  and  officially 
sent  bearer  of  God's  highest  thought.  For  the 
present,  she  brings  the  Second  Advent.  We 
must  expect  that  before  she  has  been  in  her 
grave  fifty  years  she  will  be  regarded  by  her 
following  as  having  been  herself  the  Second  Ad 
vent.  She  is  already  worshipped,  and  we  must 
expect  this  feeling  to  spread,  territorially,  and 
also  to  deepen  in  intensity.2 

1  Written  in  Europe  in  1899,  but  not  hitherto  published 
in  book  form. — M.  T. 

2  After  raising  a  dead  child  to  life,  the  disciple  who  did  it 
writes  an  account  of  her  performance  to  Mrs.  Eddy,  and 


68 

Particularly  after  her  death;  for  then,  as  any 
one  can  foresee,  Eddy- Worship  will  be  taught 
in  the  Sunday-schools  and  pulpits  of  the  cult. 
Already  whatever  she  puts  her  trade-mark  on, 
though  it  be  only  a  memorial-spoon,  is  holy  and 
is  eagerly  and  gratefully  bought  by  the  disciple, 
and  becomes  a  fetich  in  his  house.  I  say 
bought,  for  the  Boston  Christian-Science  Trust 
gives  nothing  away;  everything  it  has  is  for  sale. 
And  the  terms  are  cash;  and  not  only  cash,  but 
cash  in  advance.  Its  god  is  Mrs.  Eddy  first, 
then  the  Dollar.  Not  a  spiritual  Dollar,  but  a 
real  one.  From  end  to  end  of  the  Christian- 
Science  literature  not  a  single  (material)  thing 
in  the  world  is  conceded  to  be  real,  except  the 
Dollar.  But  all  through  and  through  its  ad 
vertisements  that  reality  is  eagerly  and  per 
sistently  recognized. 

The  Dollar  is  hunted  down  in  all  sorts  of 
ways;  the  Christian-Science  Mother-Church  and 

closes  it  thus:  "My  prayer  daily  is  to  be  more  spiritual, 
that  I  may  do  more  as  you  would  have  me  do,  ...  and 
may  we  all  love  you  more,  and  so  live  it  that  the  world 
may  know  that  the  Christ  is  come." — Printed  in  the  Con 
cord,  N.  H.,  Independent  Statesman,  March  9,  1899.  If 
this  is  not  worship,  it  is  a  good  imitation  of  it. — M.  T. 


69 

Bargain  -  Counter  in  Boston  peddles  all  kinds 
of  spiritual  wares  to  the  faithful,  and  always 
on  the  one  condition  —  cash,  cash  in  advance. 
The  Angel  of  the  Apocalypse  could  not  go  there 
and  get  a  copy  of  his  own  pirated  book  on  cred 
it.  Many,  many  precious  Christian  -  Science 
things  are  to  be  had  there — for  cash:  Bible  Les 
sons;  Church  Manual;  C.  S.  Hymnal;  History 
of  the  building  of  the  Mother-Church;  lot  of 
Sermons;  Communion  Hymn,  "Saw  Ye  My 
Saviour,"  by  Mrs.  Eddy,  half  a  dollar  a  copy, 
"words  used  by  special  permission  of  Mrs. 
Eddy."  Also  we  have  Mrs.  Eddy's  and  the 
Angel's  little  Bible-Annex  in  eight  styles  of 
binding  at  eight  kinds  of  war-prices;  among 
these  a  sweet  thing  in  "  levant,  divinity  circuit, 
leather  lined  to  edge,  round  corners,  gold  edge, 
silk  sewed,  each,  prepaid,  $6,"  and  if  you  take  a 
million  you  get  them  a  shilling  cheaper — that 
is  to  say,  "  prepaid,  $5.75. "  Also  we  have  Mrs. 
Eddy's  Miscellaneous  Writings,  at  'andsome 
big  prices,  the  divinity-circuit  style  heading  the 
extortions,  shilling  discount  where  you  take  an 
edition.  Next  comes  Christ  and  Christmas,  by 
the  fertile  Mrs.  Eddy — a  poem — would  God  I 


7Q 

could  see  it! — price  $3,  cash  in  advance.  Then 
follow  five  more  books  by  Mrs.  Eddy,  at  high 
wayman's  rates,  some  of  them  in  "  leatherette 
covers,"  some  of  them  in  "  pebbled  cloth,"  with 
divinity  -circuit,  compensation -balance,  twin- 
screw,  and  the  other  modern  improvements; 
and  at  the  same  bargain-counter  can  be  had 
The  Christian  Science  Journal. 

Christian-Science  literary  discharges  are  a 
monopoly  of  the  Mother-Church  Headquarters 
Factory  in  Boston;  none  genuine  without  the 
trade-mark  of  the  Trust.  You  must  apply 
there  and  not  elsewhere.1 

The  Trust  has  still  other  sources  of  income. 
Mrs.  Eddy  is  president  (and  proprietor)  of  the 
Trust's  Metaphysical  College  in  Boston,  where 
the  student  of  C.  S.  healing  learns  the  game  by 
a  three  weeks'  course,  and  pays  one  hundred 
dollars  for  it.2  And  I  have  a  case  among  my 

1  February,  1903.     I  applied  last  month,  but  they  re 
turned  my  money,  and  wouldn't  play.     We  are  not  on 
speaking  terms  now. — M.  T. 

2  An  error.     For  one  hundred,  read  three  hundred.  That 
was  for  twelve  brief  lessons.     But  this  cheapness  only 
lasted  until  the  end  of  1888 — fourteen  years  ago.     [I  am 
making  this  note  in  December,  1902].     Mrs.  Eddy — over 


From  a  stereograph,  copyright,  1QO6,  by  H.  C.  \Vhite  Co.  N .  Y. 


THE     FIRST     CHURCH     OF     CHRIST,     SCIENTIST,     BOSTON,     MASS. 
KNOWN    AS    THE    MOTHER-CHURCH 


statistics  where  the  student  had  a  three  weeks' 
course  and  paid  three  hundred  for  it. 

The  Trust  does  love  the  Dollar,  when  it  isn't 
a  spiritual  one. 

In  order  to  force  the  sale  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
Bible-Annex,  no  healer,  Metaphysical-College- 
bred  or  other,  is  allowed  to  practise  the  game 
unless  he  possesses  a  copy  of  that  book.  That 
means  a  large  and  constantly  augmenting  in 
come  for  the  Trust.  No  C.  S.  family  would 
consider  itself  loyal  or  pious  or  pain-proof  with 
out  an  Annex  or  two  in  the  house.  That  means 
an  income  for  the  Trust,  in  the  near  future,  of 
millions;  not  thousands — millions  a  year. 

No  member,  young  or  old,  of  a  branch  Chris 
tian-Scientist  church  can  acquire  and  retain 
membership  in  the  Mother  -  Church  unless  he 
pay  "capitation  tax"  (of  "not  less  than  a  dol 
lar,"  say  the  By-Laws)  to  the  Boston  Trust 
every  year.  That  means  an  income  for  the 
Trust,  in  the  near  future,  of — let  us  venture  to 
say — millions  more  per  year. 

her  own  signature — then  made  a  change ;  the  new  terms 
were  three  hundred  dollars  for  seven  lessons.  See  Chris 
tian  Science  Journal  for  December,  1888. — M.  T. 


7* 

It  is  a  reasonably  safe  guess  that  in  America 
in  1920  there  will  be  ten  million1  Christian  Sci 
entists,  and  three  millions  in  Great  Britain; 
that  these  figures  will  be  trebled  in  1930;  that 
in  America  in  1920  the  Christian  Scientists  will 
be  a  political  force,  in  1930  politically  formi 
dable,  and  in  1940  the  governing  power  in  the 
Republic — to  remain  that,  permanently.  And 
I  think  it  a  reasonable  guess  that  the  Trust 
(which  is  already  in  our  day  pretty  brusque  in 
its  ways)  will  then  be  the  most  insolent  and 
unscrupulous  and  tyrannical  politico-religious 
master  that  has  dominated  a  people  since  the 
palmy  days  of  the  Inquisition.  And  a  stronger 
master  than  the  strongest  of  bygone  times, 
because  this  one  will  have  a  financial  strength 
not  dreamed  of  by  any  predecessor;  as  effective 
a  concentration  of  irresponsible  power  as  any 
predecessor  has  had;2  in  the  railway,  the  tele 
graph,  and  the  subsidized  newspaper,  better 

1  Written  in  1899.     It  is  intended  to  include  men,  wom 
en,  and  children.     Although  the  calculation  was  based 
upon  inflated  statistics,  I  believe  to-day  that  it  is  not  far 
out.— -M.  T. 

2  It  can  be  put  stronger  than  that  and  still  be  true. — 
M.T. 


73 

facilities  for  watching  and  managing  his  em 
pire  than  any  predecessor  has  had;  and,  after 
a  generation  or  two,  he  will  probably  divide 
Christendom  with  the  Catholic  Church. 

The  Roman  Church  has  a  perfect  organiza 
tion,  and  it  has  an  effective  centralization  of 
power — but  not  of  its  cash.  Its  multitude  of 
Bishops  are  rich,  but  their  riches  remain  in 
large  measure  in  their  own  hands.  They  col 
lect  from  two  hundred  millions  of  people,  but 
they  keep  the  bulk  of  the  result  at  home.  The 
Boston  Pope  of  by-and-by  will  draw  his  dollar- 
a-head  capitation-tax  from  three  hundred  mill 
ions  of  the  human  race,1  and  the  Annex  and 
the  rest  of  his  book  -  shop  stock  will  fetch  in 
as  much  more;  and  his  Metaphysical  Colleges, 
the  annual  pilgrimage  to  Mrs.  Eddy's  tomb, 
from  all  over  the  world — admission,  the  Chris 
tian  -  Science  Dollar  (payable  in  advance) — 
purchases  of  consecrated  glass  beads,  candles, 

1  In  that  day  by  force;  it  is  voluntary  now.  In  the 
new  half  of  this  book  the  reader  will  perceive  that  all 
imaginable  compulsions  are  possible  under  the  Mother- 
Church's  body  of  Laws.  To-day  more  is  expected  than  the 
one  dollar.  This  is  indicated  in  the  wording  of  the  By- 
Law.  Much  more  conies,  from  many  members. — M.  T. 


74 

memorial  spoons,  aureoled  chromo  -  portraits 
and  bogus  autographs  of  Mrs.  Eddy;  cash 
offerings  at  her  shrine — no  crutches  of  cured 
cripples  received,  and  no  imitations  of  miracu 
lously  restored  broken  legs  and  necks  allowed 
to  be  hung  up  except  when  made  out  of  the 
Holy  Metal  and  proved  by  fire-assay ;  cash  for 
miracles  worked  at  the  tomb:  these  money- 
sources,  with  a  thousand  to  be  yet  invented 
and  ambushed  upon  the  devotee,  will  bring 
the  annual  increment  well  up  above  a  billion. 
And  nobody  but  the  Trust  will  have  the  hand 
ling  of  it.  In  that  day,  the  Trust  will  monop 
olize  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testaments  as  well  as  the  Annex,  and 
raise  their  price  to  Annex  rates,  and  compel 
the  devotee  to  buy  (for  even  to-day  a  healer 
has  to  have  the  Annex  and  the  Scriptures  or 
he  is  not  allowed  to  work  the  game),  and  that 
will  bring  several  hundred  million  dollars  more. 
In  those  days,  the  Trust  will  have  an  income 
approaching  five  million  dollars  a  day,  and 
no  expenses  to  be  taken  out  of  it ;  no  tax 
es  to  pay,  and  no  charities  to  support.  That 
last  detail  should  not  be  lightly  passed  over 


75 

by  the  reader;  it  is  well  entitled  to  atten 
tion. 

No  charities  to  support.  No,  nor  even  to  con 
tribute  to.  One  searches  in  vain  the  Trust's 
advertisements  and  the  utterances  of  its  or 
gans  for  any  suggestion  that  it  spends  a  penny 
on  orphans,  widows,  discharged  prisoners,  hos 
pitals,  ragged  schools,  night  missions,  city  mis 
sions,  libraries,  old  people's  homes,  or  any  other 
object  that  appeals  to  a  human  being's  purse 
through  his  heart.1 

I  have  hunted,  hunted,  and  hunted,  by  cor 
respondence  and  otherwise,  and  have  not  yet 
got  upon  the  track  of  a  farthing  that  the  Trust 
has  spent  upon  any  worthy  object.  Nothing 
makes  a  Scientist  so  uncomfortable  as  to  ask 
him  if  he  knows  of  a  case  where  Christian 
Science  has  spent  money  on  a  benevolence, 
either  among  its  own  adherents  or  elsewhere. 
He  is  obliged  to  say  "  No."  And  then  one  dis 
covers  that  the  person  questioned  has  been 

1  In  two  years  (1898-99)  the  membership  of  the  Es 
tablished  Church  in  England  gave  voluntary  contribu 
tions  amounting  to  seventy-three  millions  of  dollars  to  the 
Church's  benevolent  enterprises.  Churches  that  give  have 
nothing  to  hide. — M.  T, 


76 

asked  the  question  many  times  before,  and  that 
it  is  getting  to  be  a  sore  subject  with  him.  Why 
a  sore  subject?  Because  he  has  written  his 
chiefs  and  asked  with  high  confidence  for  an 
answer  that  will  confound  these  questioners — 
and  the  chiefs  did  not  reply.  He  has  written 
again,  and  then  again — not  with  confidence, 
but  humbly,  now — and  has  begged  for  defen 
sive  ammunition  in  the  voice  of  supplication. 
A  reply  does  at  last  come — to  this  effect:  "  We 
must  have  faith  in  Our  Mother,  and  rest  con 
tent  in  the  conviction  that  whatever  She1  does 
with  the  money  it  is  in  accordance  with  orders 
from  Heaven,  for  She  does  no  act  of  any  kind 
without  first  'demonstrating  over*  it." 

That  settles  it — as  far  as  the  disciple  is  con 
cerned.  His  mind  is  satisfied  with  that  answer ; 
he  gets  down  his  Annex  and  does  an  incanta 
tion  or  two,  and  that  mesmerizes  his  spirit  and 
puts  that  to  sleep — brings  it  peace.  Peace  and 
comfort  and  joy,  until  some  inquirer  punctures 
the  old  sore  again. 

Through  friends  in  America  I  asked  some 

1  I  may  be  introducing  the  capital  S  a  little  early — still, 
it  is  on  its  way. — M.  T. 


77 

questions,  and  in  some  cases  got  definite  and 
informing  answers;  in  other  cases  the  answers 
were  not  definite  and  not  valuable.  To  the 
question,  "  Does  any  of  the  money  go  to  chari 
ties?"  the  answer  from  an  authoritative  source 
was:  "No,  not  in  the  sense  usually  conveyed  by 
this  word."  (The  italics  are  mine.)  That  an 
swer  is  cautious.  But  definite,  I  think — utter 
ly  and  unassailably  definite  —  although  quite 
Christian-Scientifically  foggy  in  its  phrasing. 
Christian- Science  testimony  is  generally  foggy, 
generally  diffuse,  generally  garrulous.  The 
writer  was  aware  that  the  first  word  in  his 
phrase  answered  the  question  which  I  was  ask 
ing,  but  he  could  not  help  adding  nine  dark 
words.  Meaningless  ones,  unless  explained  by 
him.  It  is  quite  likely,  as  intimated  by  him, 
that  Christian  Science  has  invented  a  new  class 
of  objects  to  apply  the  word  " charity"  to,  but 
without  an  explanation  we  cannot  know  what 
they  are.  We  quite  easily  and  naturally  and 
confidently  guess  that  they  are  in  all  cases  ob 
jects  which  will  return  five  hundred  per  cent,  on 
the  Trust's  investment  in  them,  but  guessing  is 
not  knowledge ;  it  is  merely,  in  this  case,  a  sort 


78 

of  nine-tenths  certainty  deducible  from  what 
we  think  we  know  of  the  Trust's  trade  prin 
ciples  and  its  sly  and  furtive  and  shifty 
ways.1 

Sly?  Deep?  Judicious?  The  Trust  under 
stands  its  business.  The  Trust  does  not  give 
itself  away.  It  defeats  all  the  attempts  of  us 
impertinents  to  get  at  its  trade  secrets.  To 
this  day,  after  all  our  diligence,  we  have  not 
been  able  to  get  it  to  confess  what  it  does  with 
the  money.  It  does  not  even  let  its  own  disci 
ples  find  out.  All  it  says  is,  that  the  matter 
has  been  "demonstrated  over."  Now  and 
then  a  lay  Scientist  says,  with  a  grateful  exul 
tation,  that  Mrs.  Eddy  is  enormously  rich,  but 
he  stops  there ;  as  to  whether  any  of  the  money 
goes  to  other  charities  or  not,  he  is  obliged  to 
admit  that  he  does  not  know.  However,  the 
Trust  is  composed  of  human  beings;  and  this 
justifies  the  conjecture  that  if  it  had  a  charity 

1  February,  1903.  A  letter  has  come  to  me,  this  month, 
from  a  lady  who  says  that  while  she  was  living  in  Boston, 
a  few  years  ago,  she  visited  the  Mother-Church  and  offices 
and  had  speech  with  Judge  Septimius  J.  Hanna,  the 
"first  reader,"  who  "stated  positively  that  the  Church,  as 
a  body,  does  no  philanthropic  work  whatever." — M.  T. 


79 

on  its  list  which  it  was  proud  of,  we  should  soon 
hear  of  it. 

"  Without  money  and  without  price."  Those 
used  to  be  the  terms.  Mrs.  Eddy's  Annex  can 
cels  them.  The  motto  of  Christian  Science  is, 
"  The  laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire."  And  now 
that  it  has  been  "  demonstrated  over,"  we  find 
its  spiritual  meaning  to  be,  "  Do  anything  and 
everything  your  hand  may  find  to  do;  and 
charge  cash  for  it,  and  collect  the  money  in  ad 
vance."  The  Scientist  has  on  his  tongue's  end 
a  cut-and-dried,  Boston-supplied  set  of  rather 
lean  arguments,  whose  function  is  to  show  that 
it  is  a  Heaven-commanded  duty  to  do  this,  and 
that  the  croupiers  of  the  game  have  no  choice 
but  to  obey.1 

1  February,  1903.  If  I  seem  to  be  charging  any  one  out 
side  of  the  Trust  with  an  exaggerated  appetite  for  money, 
I  have  not  meant  to  do  it.  The  exactions  of  the  ordinary 
C.  S.  " healer"  are  not  exorbitant.  If  I  have  prejudices 
against  the  Trust — and  I  do  feel  that  I  have — they  do 
not  extend  to  the  lay  membership.  "The  laborer  is 
worthy  of  his  hire."  And  is  entitled  to  receive  it,  too, 
and  charge  his  own  price  (when  he  is  laboring  in  a  lawful 
calling).  The  great  surgeon  charges  a  thousand  dollars, 
and  no  one  is  justified  in  objecting  to  it.  The  great 
preacher  and  teacher  in  religion  receives  a  large  salary, 
and  is  entitled  to  it;  Henry  Ward  Beecher's  was  twenty 


8o 

The  Trust  seems  to  be  a  reincarnation.  Ex 
odus  xxxii.  4. 

thousand  dollars.  Mrs.  Eddy's  Metaphysical  College  was 
chartered  by  the  State,  and  she  had  a  legal  right  to 
charge  amazing  prices,  and  she  did  it.  She  allows  only 
a  few  persons  to  teach  Christian  Science.  The  calling  of 
these  teachers  is  not  illegal.  Mrs.  Eddy  appoints  the 
sum  their  students  must  pay,  and  it  is  a  round  one;  but 
that  is  no  matter,  since  they  need  not  come  unless  they 
want  to. 

But  when  we  come  to  the  C.  S.  "healer,"  the  practi 
tioner,  that  is  another  thing.  He  exists  by  the  hundred ; 
his  services  are  prized  by  his  C.  S.  patient,  they  are  pre 
ferred  above  all  other  human  help,  and  are  thankfully 
paid  for.  As  I  have  just  remarked,  his  prices  are  not 
large.  But  there  is  hardly  a  State  wherein  he  can  lawfully 
practise  his  profession.  In  the  name  of  religion,  of  mor 
als,  and  of  Christ — represented  on  the  earth  by  Mrs.  Eddy 
— he  enters  upon  his  trade  a  commissioned  law-breaker. 

A  law-breaker.  It  is  curious,  but  if  the  Second  Advent 
should  happen  now,  Jesus  could  not  heal  the  sick  in  the 
State  of  New  York.  He  could  not  do  it  lawfully;  there 
fore  He  could  not  do  it  morally;  therefore  He  could  not  do 
it  at  all.— M.  T. 

March  12,  1903.  While  I  am  reading  the  final  proofs 
of  this  book,  the  following  letter  has  come  to  me.  It  is 
not  marked  private,  therefore  I  suppose  I  may  without 
impropriety  insert  it  here,  if  I  suppress  the  signature: 

"DEAR  SIR, — In  the  North  American  Review  for  Janu 
ary  is  the  statement,  in  effect,  that  Christian  Scientists 
give  nothing  to  charities.  It  has  had  wide  reading  and  is 
doubtless  credited.  To  produce  a  true  impression,  it  seems 
as  if  other  facts  should  have  been  stated  in  connection. 


8i 


I  have  no  reverence  for  the  Trust,  but  I  am 
not  lacking  in  reverence  for  the  sincerities  of 

"With  regret  for  adding  anything  to  the  burden  of 
letters  from  strangers,  I  am  impelled  to  write  what  I 
know  from  a  limited  acquaintance  in  the  sect.  I  am  not 
connected  with  it  myself. 

"The  charity  freely  given  by  individual  practitioners, 
so  far  as  I  know  it,  is  at  least  equal  to  that  of  regular 
physicians.  Charges  are  made  with  much  more  than 
equal  consideration  of  the  means  of  the  patient.  Of 
course  druggists'  bills  and  the  enormous  expenses  in 
volved  in  the  employment  of  a  trained  nurse,  exist  in 
small  degree  or  not  at  all. 

"As  to  organized  charities:  It  is  hard  to  find  one  where 
the  most  intelligent  laborers  in  it  feel  that  they  are  reach 
ing  the  root  of  an  evil.  They  are  putting  a  few  plasters 
on  a  body  of  disease.  Complaint  is  made,  too,  that  the 
machinery,  by  which  of  necessity  systematic  charity  must 
be  administered,  prevents  the  personal  friendliness  and 
sympathy  which  should  pervade  it  throughout. 

' '  Christian  Science  claims  to  be  able  to  abolish  the  need 
for  charity.  The  results  of  drunkenness  make  great  de 
mands  upon  the  charitable.  But  the  principle  of  Chris 
tian  Science  takes  away  the  desire  for  strong  drink.  If 
sexual  propensities  were  dominated,  not  only  by  reason, 
but  by  Christian  love  for  both  the  living  and  the  unborn 
— Christian  Science  is  emphatic  on  this  subject — many 
existing  charitable  societies  would  have  no  reason  to  be. 
So  far  as  Christian  Science  prevents  disease,  the  need  for 
hospitals  is  lessened.  Not  only  illness,  but  poverty,  is  a 
subject  for  the  practice  of  Christian  Science.  If  this  evil 
were  prevented  there  would  be  no  occasion  to  alleviate 
its  results. 


82 


the  lay  membership  of  the  new  Church.  There 
is  every  evidence  that  the  lay  members  are 
entirely  sincere  in  their  faith,  and  I  think  sin 
cerity  is  always  entitled  to  honor  and  respect, 
let  the  inspiration  of  the  sincerity  be  what  it 
may.  Zeal  and  sincerity  can  carry  a  new  re 
ligion  further  than  any  other  missionary  except 
fire  and  sword,  and  I  believe  that  the  new  re 
ligion  will  conquer  the  half  of  Christendom  in  a 
hundred  years.  I  am  not  intending  this  as  a 
compliment  to  the  human  race;  I  am  merely 
stating  an  opinion.  And  yet  I  think  that  per 
haps  it  is  a  compliment  to  the  race.  I  keep  in 
mind  that  saying  of  an  orthodox  preacher — 
quoted  further  back.  He  conceded  that  this 
new  Christianity  frees  its  possessor's  life  from 
frets,  fears,  vexations,  bitterness,  and  all  sorts  of 
imagination-propagated  maladies  and  pains,  and 
fills  his  world  with  sunshine  and  his  heart  with 

"The  faith,  hope,  and  love  which  the  few  Christian 
Scientists  I  have  known  have  lived  and  radiated,  made 
conditions  needing  organized  charity  vanish  before  them. 

"With  renewed  apology  for  intrusion  upon  one  whose 
own  'Uncle  Silas'  was  'loved  back*  to  sanity, 

"I  am,  etc.,  etc. 

"WOBURN,    MASS., 

"March  10,  1903." 


83 

gladness.  If  Christian  Science,  with  this  stu 
pendous  equipment — and  final  salvation  added 
— cannot  win  half  the  Christian  globe,  I  must 
be  badly  mistaken  in  the  make-up  of  the  hu 
man  race. 

I  think  the  Trust  will  be  handed  down  like 
the  other  Papacy,  and  will  always  know  how 
to  handle  its  limitless  cash.  It  will  press  the 
button ;  the  zeal,  the  energy,  the  sincerity,  the 
enthusiasm  of  its  countless  vassals  will  do  the 
rest. 


CHAPTER    VIII 

THE  power  which  a  man's  imagination  has 
over  his  body  to  heal  it  or  make  it  sick  is  a  force 
which  none  of  us  is  born  without.  The  first 
man  had  it,  the  last  one  will  possess  it.  If  left 
to  himself,  a  man  is  most  likely  to  use  only  the 
mischievous  half  of  the  force — the  half  which 
invents  imaginary  ailments  for  him  and  culti 
vates  them ;  and  if  he  is  one  of  these  very  wise 
people,  he  is  quite  likely  to  scoff  at  the  benef 
icent  half  of  the  force  and  deny  its  existence. 
And  so,  to  heal  or  help  that  man,  two  imagina 
tions  are  required:  his  own  and  some  outsider's. 
The  outsider,  B,  must  imagine  that  his  incanta 
tions  are  the  healing-power  that  is  curing  A, 
and  A  must  imagine  that  this  is  so.  I  think  it 
is  not  so,  at  all;  but  no  matter,  the  cure  is  ef 
fected,  and  that  is  the  main  thing.  The  out 
sider's  work  is  unquestionably  valuable;  so 
valuable  that  it  may  fairly  be  likened  to  the  es 
sential  work  performed  by  the  engineer  when 


85 

he  handles  the  throttle  and  turns  on  the  steam; 
the  actual  power  is  lodged  exclusively  in  the 
engine,  but  if  the  engine  were  left  alone  it 
would  never  start  of  itself.  Whether  the  en 
gineer  be  named  Jim,  or  Bob,  or  Tom,  it  is  all 
one — his  services  are  necessary,  and  he  is  en 
titled  to  such  wage  as  he  can  get  you  to  pay. 
Whether  he  be  named  Christian  Scientist,  or 
Mental  Scientist,  or  Mind  Curist,  or  King's-Evil 
Expert,  or  Hypnotist,  it  is  all  one;  he  is  merely 
the  Engineer ;  he  simply  turns  on  the  same  old 
steam  and  the  engine  does  the  whole  work. 

The  Christian-Scientist  engineer  drives  ex 
actly  the  same  trade  as  the  other  engineers,  yet 
he  out-prospers  the  whole  of  them  put  together.1 

Is  it  because  he  has  captured  the  takingest 
name?  I  think  that  that  is  only  a  small  part 
of  it.  I  think  that  the  secret  of  his  high  pros 
perity  lies  elsewhere. 

The  Christian  Scientist  has  organized  the 
business.  Now  that  was  certainly  a  gigantic 
idea.  Electricity,  in  limitless  volume,  has  ex- 

1  February,  1903.  As  I  have  already  remarked  in  a 
foot-note,  the  Scientist  claims  that  he  uses  a  force  not 
used  by  any  of  the  others. — M.  T. 


86 

isted  in  the  air  and  the  rocks  and  the  earth  and 
everywhere  since  time  began — and  was  going 
to  waste  all  the  while.  In  our  time  we  have 
organized  that  scattered  and  wandering  force 
and  set  it  to  work,  and  backed  the  business  with 
capital,  and  concentrated  it  in  few  and  compe 
tent  hands,  and  the  results  are  as  we  see. 

The  Christian  Scientist  has  taken  a  force 
which  has  been  lying  idle  in  every  member  of 
the  human  race  since  time  began,  and  has  or 
ganized  it,  and  backed  the  business  with  capi 
tal,  and  concentrated  it  at  Boston  headquar 
ters  in  the  hands  of  a  small  and  very  competent 
Trust,  and  there  are  results. 

Therein  lies  the  promise  that  this  monopoly 
is  going  to  extend  its  commerce  wide  in  the 
earth.  I  think  that  if  the  business  were  con 
ducted  in  the  loose  and  disconnected  fashion 
customary  with  such  things,  it  would  achieve 
but  little  more  than  the  modest  prosperity  usu 
ally  secured  by  unorganized  great  moral  and 
commercial  ventures ;  but  I  believe  that  so  long 
as  this  one  remains  compactly  organized  and 
closely  concentrated  in  a  Trust,  the  spread  of 
its  dominion  will  continue. 


CHAPTER    IX 

FOUR  years  ago  I  wrote  the  preceding  chap 
ters.1  I  was  assured  by  the  wise  that  Chris 
tian  Science  was  a  fleeting  craze  and  would 
soon  perish.  This  prompt  and  all-competent 
stripe  of  prophet  is  always  to  be  had  in  the 
market  at  ground -floor  rates.  He  does  not 
stop  to  load,  or  consider,  or  take  aim,  but 
lets  fly  just  as  he  stands.  Facts  are  nothing 
to  him,  he  has  no  use  for  such  things;  he 
works  wholly  by  inspiration.  And  so,  when 
he  is  asked  why  he  considers  a  new  move 
ment  a  passing  fad  and  quickly  perishable, 
he  finds  himself  unprepared  with  a  reason  and 
is  more  or  less  embarrassed.  For  a  moment. 
Only  for  a  moment.  Then  he  waylays  the  first 
spectre  of  a  reason  that  goes  flitting  through  the 
desert  places  of  his  mind,  and  is  at  once  serene 
again  and  ready  for  conflict.  Serene  and  con 
fident.  Yet  he  should  not  be  so,  since  he  has 

JThat  is  to  say,  in  1898. 


88 

had  no  chance  to  examine  his  catch,  and  cannot 
know  whether  it  is  going  to  help  his  contention 
or  damage  it. 

The  impromptu  reason  furnished  by  the 
early  prophets  of  whom  I  have  spoken  was 
this: 

"There  is  nothing  to  Christian  Science;  there 
is  nothing  about  it  that  appeals  to  the  intellect; 
its  market  will  be  restricted  to  the  unintelligent, 
the  mentally  inferior,  the  people  who  do  not 
think." 

They  called  that  a  reason  why  the  cult  would 
not  flourish  and  endure.  It  seems  the  equiva 
lent  of  saying: 

"  There  is  no  money  in  tinware ;  there  is  noth 
ing  about  it  that  appeals  to  the  rich;  its  market 
will  be  restricted  to  the  poor." 

It  is  like  bringing  forward  the  best  reason  in 
the  world  why  Christian  Science  should  flour 
ish  and  live,  and  then  blandly  offering  it  as  a 
reason  why  it  should  sicken  and  die. 

That  reason  was  furnished  me  by  the  com 
placent  and  unfrightened  prophets  four  years 
ago,  and  it  has  been  furnished  me  again  to-day. 
If  conversions  to  new  religions  or  to  old  ones 


89 

were  in  any  considerable  degree  achieved 
through  the  intellect,  the  aforesaid  reason 
would  be  sound  and  sufficient,  no  doubt;  the 
inquirer  into  Christian  Science  might  go  away 
unconvinced  and  unconverted.  But  we  all 
know  that  conversions  are  seldom  made  in  that 
way;  that  such  a  thing  as  a  serious  and  pains 
taking  and  fairly  competent  inquiry  into  the 
claims  of  a  religion  or  of  a  political  dogma  is  a 
rare  occurrence ;  and  that  the  vast  mass  of  men 
and  women  are  far  from  being  capable  of  mak 
ing  such  an  examination.  They  are  not  ca 
pable,  for  the  reason  that  their  minds,  howso 
ever  good  they  may  be,  are  not  trained  for  such 
examinations.  The  mind  not  trained  for  that 
work  is  no  more  competent  to  do  it  than  are 
lawyers  and  farmers  competent  to  make  suc 
cessful  clothes  without  learning  the  tailor's 
trade.  There  are  seventy-five  million  men  and 
women  among  us  who  do  not  know  how  to  cut 
out  and  make  a  dress-suit,  and  they  would  not 
think  of  trying;  yet  they  all  think  they  can 
competently  think  out  a  political  or  religious 
scheme  without  any  apprenticeship  to  the  busi 
ness,  and  many  of  them  believe  they  have  act- 


ually  worked  that  miracle.  But,  indeed,  the 
truth  is,  almost  all  the  men  and  women  of  our 
nation  or  of  any  other  get  their  religion  and 
their  politics  where  they  get  their  astronomy 
— entirely  at  second  hand.  Being  untrained, 
they  are  no  more  able  to  intelligently  examine 
a  dogma  or  a  policy  than  they  are  to  calculate 
an  eclipse. 

Men  are  usually  competent  thinkers  along 
the  lines  of  their  specialized  training  only. 
Within  these  limits  alone  are  their  opinions 
and  judgments  valuable ;  outside  of  these  limits 
they  grope  and  are  lost — usually  without  know 
ing  it.  In  a  church  assemblage  of  five  hundred 
persons,  there  will  be  a  man  or  two  whose  train 
ed  minds  can  seize  upon  each  detail  of  a  great 
manufacturing  scheme  and  recognize  its  value 
or  its  lack  of  value  promptly;  and  can  pass  the 
details  in  intelligent  review,  section  by  section, 
and  finally  as  a  whole,  and  then  deliver  a  ver 
dict  upon  the  scheme  which  cannot  be  flippant 
ly  set  aside  nor  easily  answered.  And  there  will 
be  one  or  two  other  men  there  who  can  do  the 
same  thing  with  a  great  and  complicated  edu 
cational  project;  and  one  or  two  others  who 


can  do  the  like  with  a  large  scheme  for  applying 
electricity  in  a  new  and  unheard-of  way;  and 
one  or  two  others  who  can  do  it  with  a  showy 
scheme  for  revolutionizing  the  scientific  world's 
accepted  notions  regarding  geology.  And  so 
on,  and  so  on.  But  the  manufacturing  experts 
will  not  be  competent  to  examine  the  educa 
tional  scheme  intelligently,  and  their  opinion 
about  it  would  not  be  valuable;  neither  of  these 
two  groups  will  be  able  to  understand  and  pass 
upon  the  electrical  scheme ;  none  of  these  three 
batches  of  experts  will  be  able  to  understand 
and  pass  upon  the  geological  revolution;  and 
probably  not  one  man  in  the  entire  lot  will  be 
competent  to  examine,  capably,  the  intricacies 
of  a  political  or  religious  scheme,  new  or  old, 
and  deliver  a  judgment  upon  it  which  any  one 
need  regard  as  precious. 

There  you  have  the  top  crust.  There  will  be 
four  hundred  and  seventy-five  men  and  women 
present  who  can  draw  upon  their  training  and 
deliver  incontrovertible  judgments  concerning 
cheese,  and  leather,  and  cattle,  and  hardware, 
and  soap,  and  tar,  and  candles,  and  patent 
medicines,  and  dreams,  and  apparitions,  and 


92 

garden  truck,  and  cats,  and  baby  food,  and 
warts,  and  hymns,  and  time-tables,  and  freight- 
rates,  and  summer  resorts,  and  whiskey,  and 
law,  and  surgery,  and  dentistry,  and  black- 
smithing,  and  shoemaking,  and  dancing,  and 
Huyler's  candy,  and  mathematics,  and  dog 
fights,  and  obstetrics,  and  music,  and  sausages, 
and  dry  goods,  and  molasses,  and  railroad 
stocks,  and  horses,  and  literature,  and  labor 
unions,  and  vegetables,  and  morals,  and  lamb's 
fries,  and  etiquette,  and  agriculture.  And  not 
ten  among  the  five  hundred — let  their  minds 
be  ever  so  good  and  bright — will  be  competent, 
by  grace  of  the  requisite  specialized  mental 
training,  to  take  hold  of  a  complex  abstraction 
of  any  kind  and  make  head  or  tail  of  it. 

The  whole  five  hundred  are  thinkers,  and 
they  are  all  capable  thinkers — but  only  within 
the  narrow  limits  of  their  specialized  trainings. 
Four  hundred  and  ninety  of  them  cannot  com 
petently  examine  either  a  religious  plan  or  a 
political  one.  A  scattering  few  of  them  do  ex 
amine  both — that  is,  they  think  they  do.  With 
results  as  precious  as  when  I  examine  the  neb 
ular  theory  and  explain  it  to  myself. 


93 

If  the  four  hundred  and  ninety  got  their  re 
ligion  through  their  minds,  and  by  weighed 
and  measured  detail,  Christian  Science  would 
not  be  a  scary  apparition.  But  they  don't; 
they  get  a  little  of  it  through  their  minds,  more 
of  it  through  their  feelings,  and  the  overwhelm 
ing  bulk  of  it  through  their  environment. 

Environment  is  the  chief  thing  to  be  con 
sidered  when  one  is  proposing  to  predict  the 
future  of  Christian  Science.  It  is  not  the  abil 
ity  to  reason  that  makes  the  Presbyterian,  or 
the  Baptist,  or  the  Methodist,  or  the  Catholic, 
or  the  Mohammedan,  or  the  Buddhist,  or  the 
Mormon;  it  is  environment.  If  religions  were 
got  by  reasoning,  we  should  have  the  extraor 
dinary  spectacle  of  an  American  family  with  a 
Presbyterian  in  it,  and  a  Baptist,  a  Methodist, 
a  Catholic,  a  Mohammedan,  a  Buddhist,  and  a 
Mormon.  A  Presbyterian  family  does  not  pro 
duce  Catholic  families  or  other  religious  brands, 
it  produces  its  own  kind;  and  not  by  intellect 
ual  processes,  but  by  association.  And  so  also 
with  Mohammedanism,  the  cult  which  in  our 
day  is  spreading  with  the  sweep  of  a  world- 
conflagration  through  the  Orient,  that  native 


94 

home  of  profound  thought  and  of  subtle  intel 
lectual  fence,  that  fertile  womb  whence  has 
sprung  every  great  religion  that  exists.  In 
cluding  our  own;  for  with  all  our  brains  we 
cannot  invent  a  religion  and  market  it. 

The  language  of  my  quoted  prophets  recurs 
to  us  now,  and  we  wonder  to  think  how  small 
a  space  in  the  world  the  mighty  Mohammedan 
Church  would  be  occupying  now,  if  a  success 
ful  trade  in  its  line  of  goods  had  been  condi 
tioned  upon  an  exhibit  that  would  "  appeal  to 
the  intellect"  instead  of  to  "the  unintelligent, 
the  mentally  inferior,  the  people  who  do  not 
think." 

The  Christian  Science  Church,  like  the  Mo 
hammedan  Church,  makes  no  embarrassing 
appeal  to  the  intellect,  has  no  occasion  to  do  it, 
and  can  get  along  quite  well  without  it. 

Provided.  Provided  what?  That  it  can 
secure  that  thing  which  is  worth  two  or  three 
hundred  thousand  times  more  than  an  "  appeal 
to  the  intellect " — an  environment.  Can  it  get 
that?  Will  it  be  a  menace  to  regular  Chris 
tianity  if  it  gets  that?  Is  it  time  for  regular 
Christianity  to  get  alarmed?  Or  shall  regular 


95 

Christianity  smile  a  smile  and  turn  over  and 
take  another  nap?  Won't  it  be  wise  and  prop 
er  for  regular  Christianity  to  do  the  old  way, 
the  customary  way,  the  historical  way — lock 
the  stable-door  after  the  horse  is  gone?  Just 
as  Protestantism  has  smiled  and  nodded  this 
long  time  (while  the  alert  and  diligent  Catholic 
was  slipping  in  and  capturing  the  public 
schools),  and  is  now  beginning  to  hunt  around 
for  the  key  when  it  is  too  late? 

Will  Christian  Science  get  a  chance  to  show 
its  wares  ?  It  has  already  secured  that  chance. 
Will  it  flourish  and  spread  and  prosper  if  it  shall 
create  for  itself  the  one  thing  essential  to  those 
conditions — an  environment?  It  has  already 
created  an  environment.  There  are  families  of 
Christian  Scientists  in  every  community  in 
America,  and  each  family  is  a  factory;  each 
family  turns  out  a  Christian  Science  product 
at  the  customary  intervals,  and  contributes  it 
to  the  Cause  in  the  only  way  in  which  contri 
butions  of  recruits  to  Churches  are  ever  made 
on  a  large  scale — by  the  puissant  forces  of  per 
sonal  contact  and  association.  Each  family  is 
an  agency  for  the  Cause,  and  makes  converts 


96 

among  the  neighbors,  and  starts  some  more  fac 
tories. 

Four  years  ago  there  were  six  Christian  Sci 
entists  in  a  certain  town  that  I  am  acquainted 
with;  a  year  ago  there  were  two  hundred  and 
fifty  there;  they  have  built  a  church,  and  its 
membership  now  numbers  four  hundred.  This 
has  all  been  quietly  done;  done  without  fren 
zied  revivals,  without  uniforms,  brass  bands, 
street  parades,  corner  oratory,  or  any  of  the 
other  customary  persuasions  to  a  godly  life. 
Christian  Science,  like  Mohammedanism,  is 
"restricted"  to  the  " unintelligent,  the  people 
who  do  not  think."  There  lies  the  danger.  It 
makes  Christian  Science  formidable.  It  is  "  re 
stricted"  to  ninety-nine  one-hundredths  of  the 
human  race,  and  must  be  reckoned  with  by 
regular  Christianity.  And  will  be,  as  soon  as 
it  is  too  late. 


BOOK    II 


THERE  were  remarkable  things  about  the  stranger 
called  the  Man-Mystery — things  so  very  extraordinary 
that  they  monopolized  attention  and  made  all  of  him 
seem  extraordinary ;  but  this  was  not  so,  the  most  of  his 
qualities  being  of  the  common,  every-day  size  and  like 
anybody  else's.  It  was  curious.  He  was  of  the  ordi 
nary  stature,  and  had  the  ordinary  aspects ;  yet  in  him 
were  hidden  such  strange  contradictions  and  dispropor 
tions!  He  was  majestically  fearless  and  heroic;  he  had 
the  strength  of  thirty  men  and  the  daring  of  thirty 
thousand;  handling  armies,  organizing  states,  admin 
istering  governments — these  were  pastimes  to  him;  he 
publicly  and  ostentatiously  accepted  the  human  race 
at  its  own  valuation — as  demigods — and  privately  and 
successfully  dealt  with  it  at  quite  another  and  juster 
valuation — as  children  and  slaves;  his  ambitions  were 
stupendous,  and  his  dreams  had  no  commerce  with  the 
humble  plain,  but  moved  with  the  cloud-rack  among 
the  snow-summits.  These  features  of  him  were,  indeed, 
extraordinary,  but  the  rest  of  him  was  ordinary  and 
usual.  He  was  so  mean-minded,  in  the  matter  of  jeal 
ousy,  that  it  was  thought  he  was  descended  from  a  god ; 
he  was  vain  in  little  ways,  and  had  a  pride  in  trivialities ; 
he  doted  on  ballads  about  moonshine  and  bruised 
hearts ;  in  education  he  was  deficient,  he  was  indifferent 
to  literature,  and  knew  nothing  of  art;  he  was  dumb 
upon  all  subjects  but  one,  indifferent  to  all  except  that 


100 


one — the  Nebular  Theory.  Upon  that  one  his  flow  of 
words  was  full  and  free,  he  was  a  geyser.  The  official 
astronomers  disputed  his  facts  and  derided  his  views, 
and  said  that  he  had  invented  both,  they  not  being 
findable  in  any  of  the  books.  But  many  of  the  laity, 
who  wanted  their  nebulosities  fresh,  admired  his  doc 
trine  and  adopted  it,  and  it  attained  to  great  prosperity 
in  spite  of  the  hostility  of  the  experts." — The  Legend  of 
ike  Man-Mystery,  ch.  i. 


CHAPTER    I 

JANUARY,  1903.  When  we  do  not  know  a 
public  man  personally,  we  guess  him  out  by  the 
facts  of  his  career.  When  it  is  Washington,  we 
all  arrive  at  about  one  and  the  same  result.  We 
agree  that  his  words  and  his  acts  clearly  inter 
pret  his  character  to  us,  and  that  they  never 
leave  us  in  doubt  as  to  the  motives  whence  the 
words  and  acts  proceeded.  It  is  the  same  with 
Joan  of  Arc,  it  is  the  same  with  two  or  three  or 
five  or  six  others  among  the  immortals.  But 
in  the  matter  of  motives  and  of  a  few  details  of 
character  we  agree  to  disagree  upon  Napoleon, 
Cromwell,  and  all  the  rest;  and  to  this  list  we 
must  add  Mrs.  Eddy.  I  think  we  can  peace 
fully  agree  as  to  two  or  three  extraordinary 
features  of  her  make-up,  but  not  upon  the 
other  features  of  it.  We  cannot  peacefully 
agree  as  to  her  motives,  therefore  her  character 
must  remain  crooked  to  some  of  us  and  straight 
to  the  others. 


IO2 


No  matter,  she  is  interesting  enough  without 
an  amicable  agreement.  In  several  ways  she 
is  the  most  interesting  woman  that  ever  lived, 
and  the  most  extraordinary.  The  same  may 
be  said  of  her  career,  and  the  same  may  be  said 
of  its  chief  result.  She  started  from  nothing. 
Her  enemies  charge  that  she  surreptitiously 
took  from  Quimby  a  peculiar  system  of  healing 
which  was  mind-cure  with  a  Biblical  basis. 
She  and  her  friends  deny  that  she  took  any 
thing  from  him.  This  is  a  matter  which  we 
can  discuss  by-and-by.  Whether  she  took  it 
or  invented  it,  it  was — materially — a  sawdust 
mine  when  she  got  it,  and  she  has  turned  it 
into  a  Klondike;  its  spiritual  dock  had  next 
to  no  custom,  if  any  at  all:  from  it  she  has 
launched  a  world-religion  which  has  now  six 
hundred  and  sixty -three  churches,  and  she 
charters  a  new  one  every  four  days.  When 
we  do  not  know  a  person  —  and  also  when 
we  do  —  we  have  to  judge  his  size  by  the 
size  and  nature  of  his  achievements,  as  com 
pared  with  the  achievements  of  others  in  his 
special  line  of  business  —  there  is  no  other 
way.  Measured  by  this  standard,  it  is  thir- 


teen  hundred  years  since  the  world  has  pro 
duced  any  one  who  could  reach  up  to  Mrs. 
Eddy's  waistbelt. 

Figuratively  speaking,  Mrs.  Eddy  is  already 
as  tall  as  the  Eiffel  tower.  She  is  adding  sur 
prisingly  to  her  stature  every  day.  It  is  quite 
within  the  probabilities  that  a  century  hence 
she  will  be  the  most  imposing  figure  that  has 
cast  its  shadow  across  the  globe  since  the  inau 
guration  of  our  era.  I  grant  that  after  saying 
these  strong  things,  it  is  necessary  that  I  offer 
some  details  calculated  to  satisfactorily  demon 
strate  the  proportions  which  I  have  claimed 
for  her.  I  will  do  that  presently;  but  before 
exhibiting  the  matured  sequoia  gigantea,  I  be 
lieve  it  will  be  best  to  exhibit  the  sprout  from 
which  it  sprang.  It  may  save  the  reader  from 
making  miscalculations.  The  person  who  im 
agines  that  a  Big  Tree  sprout  is  bigger  than 
other  kinds  of  sprouts  is  quite  mistaken. 
It  is  the  ordinary  thing;  it  makes  no  show, 
it  compels  no  notice,  it  hasn't  a  detectible 
quality  in  it  that  entitles  it  to  attention,  or 
suggests  the  future  giant  its  sap  is  suckling. 
That  is  the  kind  of  sprout  Mrs.  Eddy  was. 


IO4 

From  her  childhood  days  up  to  where  she 
was  running  a  half -century  a  close  race  and 
gaining  on  it,  she  was  most  humanly  common 
place. 

She  is  the  witness  I  am  drawing  this  from. 
She  has  revealed  it  in  her  autobiography.  Not 
intentionally,  of  course  —  I  am  not  claiming 
that.  An  autobiography  is  the  most  treacher 
ous  thing  there  is.  It  lets  out  every  secret  its 
author  is  trying  to  keep;  it  lets  the  truth  shine 
unobstructed  through  every  harmless  little 
deception  he  tries  to  play;  it  pitilessly  exposes 
him  as  a  tin  hero  worshipping  himself  as  Big 
Metal  every  time  he  tries  to  do  the  modest- 
unconsciousness  act  before  the  reader.  This 
is  not  guessing;  I  am  speaking  from  autobi 
ographical  personal  experience;  I  was  never 
able  to  refrain  from  mentioning,  with  a  studied 
casualness  that  could  deceive  none  but  the 
most  incautious  reader,  that  an  ancestor  of 
mine  was  sent  ambassador  to  Spain  by  Charles 
I.,  nor  that  in  a  remote  branch  of  my  family 
there  exists  a  claimant  to  an  earldom,  nor  that 
an  uncle  of  mine  used  to  own  a  dog  that  was 
descended  from  the  dog  that  was  in  the  Ark; 


IQ5 

and  at  the  same  time  I  was  never  able  to  per 
suade  myself  to  call  a  gibbet  by  its  right  name 
when  accounting  for  other  ancestors  of  mine, 
but  always  spoke  of  it  as  the  " platform" 
puerilely  intimating  that  they  were  out  lectur 
ing  when  it  happened. 

It  is  Mrs.  Eddy  over  again.  As  regards  her 
minor  half,  she  is  as  commonplace  as  the  rest 
of  us.  Vain  of  trivial  things  all  the  first  half  of 
her  life,  and  still  vain  of  them  at  seventy  and 
recording  them  with  naive  satisfaction — even 
rescuing  some  early  rhymes  of  hers  of  the  sort 
that  we  all  scribble  in  the  innocent  days  of  our 
youth — rescuing  them  and  printing  them  with 
out  pity  or  apology,  just  as  the  weakest  and 
commonest  of  us  do  in  our  gray  age.  More- 
she  still  frankly  admires  them ;  and  in  her  intro 
duction  of  them  profanely  confers  upon  them 
the  holy  name  of  " poetry."  Sample: 

"  And  laud  the  land  whose  talents  rock 

The  cradle  of  her  power, 

And  wreaths  are  twined  round  Plymouth  Rock 
From  erudition's  bower." 

"  Minerva's  silver  sandals  still 
Are  loosed  and  not  effete." 


io6 

You  note  it  is  not  a  shade  above  the  thing 
which  all  human  beings  churn  out  in  their 
youth. 

You  would  not  think  that  in  a  little  wee 
primer  —  for  that  is  what  the  Autobiography 
is — a  person  with  a  tumultuous  career  of  sev 
enty  years  behind  her  could  find  room  for  two 
or  three  pages  of  padding  of  this  kind,  but  such 
is  the  case.  She  evidently  puts  narrative  to 
gether  with  difficulty  and  is  not  at  home  in  it, 
and  is  glad  to  have  something  ready-made  to 
fill  in  with.  Another  sample: 

"  Here  fame-honored  Hickory  rears  his  bold  form, 
And  bears1  a  brave  breast  to  the  lightning  and  storm, 
While  Palm,  Bay,  and  Laurel  in  classical  glee, 
Chase  Tulip,  Magnolia,  and  fragrant  Fringe-tree." 

Vivid?  You  can  fairly  see  those  trees  gal 
loping  around.  That  she  could  still  treasure 
up,  and  print,  and  manifestly  admire  those 
Poems,  indicates  that  the  most  daring  and 
masculine  and  masterful  woman  that  has  ap 
peared  in  the  earth  in  centuries  has  the  same 
soft,  girly-girly  places  in  her  that  the  rest  of  us 

have. 

1  Meaning  bares  f     I  think  so. — M.  T. 


When  it  comes  to  selecting  her  ancestors  she 
is  still  human,  natural,  vain,  commonplace — 
as  commonplace  as  I  am  myself  when  I  am 
sorting  ancestors  for  my  autobiography.  She 
combs  out  some  creditable  Scots,  and  labels 
them  and  sets  them  aside  for  use,  not  overlook 
ing  the  one  to  whom  Sir  William  Wallace  gave 
"a  heavy  sword  encased  in  a  brass  scabbard," 
and  naively  explaining  which  Sir  William  Wal 
lace  it  was,  lest  we  get  the  wrong  one  by  the 
hassock;1  this  is  the  one  "from  whose  patriot 
ism  and  bravery  comes  that  heart-stirring  air, 
'Scots  wha  hae  wi'  Wallace  bled/"  Hannah 
More  was  related  to  her  ancestors.  She  ex 
plains  who  Hannah  More  was. 

Whenever  a  person  informs  us  who  Sir  Will 
iam  Wallace  was,  or  who  wrote  "  Hamlet,"  or 
where  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was 
fought,  it  fills  us  with  a  suspicion  wellnigh 
amounting  to  conviction,  that  that  person 
would  not  suspect  us  of  being  so  empty  of 
knowledge  if  he  wasn't  suffering  from  the  same 
"  claim"  himself.  Then  we  turn  to  page  20  of 

1  I  am  in  some  doubt  as  to  what  a  hassock  is,  but  any 
way  it  sounds  good. — M.  T. 


io8 


the  Autobiography  and  happen  upon  this  pas 
sage,  and  that  hasty  suspicion  stands  rebuked : 

"  I  gained  book-knowledge  with  far  less  labor 
than  is  usually  requisite.  At  ten  years  of  age 
I  was  as  familiar  with  Lindley  Murray's  Gram 
mar  as  with  the  Westminster  Catechism;  and 
the  latter  I  had  to  repeat  every  Sunday.  My 
favorite  studies  were  Natural  Philosophy,  Log 
ic,  and  Moral  Science.  From  my  brother  Al 
bert  I  received  lessons  in  the  ancient  tongues, 
Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Latin." 

You  catch  your  breath  in  astonishment,  and 
feel  again  and  still  again  the  pang  of  that 
rebuke.  But  then  your  eye  falls  upon  the 
next  sentence  but  one,  and  the  pain  passes 
away  and  you  set  up  the  suspicion  again  with 
evil  satisfaction: 

"After  my  discovery  of  Christian  Science, 
most  of  the  knowledge  /  had  gleaned  from  school- 
books  vanished  like  a  dream." 

That  disappearance  accounts  for  much  in  her 
miscellaneous  writings.  As  I  was  saying,  she 


109 

handles  her  "ancestral  shadows,"  as  she  calls 
them,  just  as  I  do  mine.  It  is  remarkable. 
When  she  runs  across  "  a  relative  of  my  Grand 
father  Baker,  General  Henry  Knox,  of  Revo 
lutionary  fame,"  she  sets  him  down;  when  she 
finds  another  good  one,  "the  late  Sir  John 
Macneill,  in  the  line  of  my  Grandfather  Baker's 
family,"  she  sets  him  down,  and  remembers 
that  he  "  was  prominent  in  British  politics,  and 
at  one  time  held  the  position  of  ambassador  to 
Persia";  when  she  discovers  that  her  grand 
parents  "  were  likewise  connected  with  Captain 
John  Lovewell,  whose  gallant  leadership  and 
death  in  the  Indian  troubles  of  1722-25  caused 
that  prolonged  contest  to  be  known  historically 
as  LovewelTs  War,"  she  sets  the  Captain  down; 
when  it  turns  out  that  a  cousin  of  her  grand 
mother  "was  John  Macneill,  the  New  Hamp 
shire  general,  who  fought  at  Lundy's  Lane  and 
won  distinction  in  1814  at  the  battle  of  Chip- 
pewa,"  she  catalogues  the  General.  (And  tells 
where  Chippewa  was.)  And  then  she  skips  all 
her  platform  people;  never  mentions  one  of 
them.  It  shows  that  she  is  just  as  human  as 
any  of  us. 


no 


Yet,  after  all,  there  is  something  very  touch 
ing  in  her  pride  in  these  worthy  small-fry,  and 
something  large  and  fine  in  her  modesty  in  not 
caring  to  remember  that  their  kinship  to  her 
can  confer  no  distinction  upon  her,  whereas  her 
mere  mention  of  their  names  has  conferred 
upon  them  a  fadeless  earthly  immortality. 


CHAPTER    II 

WHEN  she  wrote  this  little  biography  her 
great  life-work  had  already  been  achieved,  she 
was  become  renowned ;  to  multitudes  of  reverent 
disciples  she  was  a  sacred  personage,  a  familiar 
of  God,  and  His  inspired  channel  of  communi 
cation  with  the  human  race .  Also ,  to  them  these 
following  things  were  facts,  and  not  doubted : 

She  had  written  a  Bible  in  middle  age,  and 
had  published  it;  she  had  recast  it,  enlarged  it, 
and  published  it  again;  she  had  not  stopped 
there,  but  had  enlarged  it  further,  polished  its 
phrasing,  improved  its  form,  and  published  it 
yet  again.  It  was  at  last  become  a  compact, 
grammatical,  dignified,  and  workman-like  body 
of  literature.  This  was  good  training,  persist 
ent  training;  and  in  all  arts  it  is  training  that 
brings  the  art  to  perfection.  We  are  now  con 
fronted  with  one  of  the  most  teasing  and  baf 
fling  riddles  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  history — a  riddle 
which  may  be  formulated  thus: 


112 


How  is  it  that  a  primitive  literary  gun  which 
began  as  a  hundred-yard  flint-lock  smooth-bore 
muzzle-loader,  and  in  the  course  of  forty  years 
has  acquired  one  notable  improvement  after 
another — percussion  cap;  fixed  cartridge;  rifled 
barrel;  efficiency  at  half  a  mile — how  is  it  that 
such  a  gun,  sufficiently  good  on  an  elephant- 
hunt  (Christian  Science)  from  the  beginning, 
and  growing  better  and  better  all  the  time  dur 
ing  forty  years,  has  always  collapsed  back  to  its 
original  flint-lock  estate  the  moment  the  hunt 
ress  trained  it  on  any  other  creature  than  an 
elephant? 

Something  more  than  a  generation  ago  Mrs. 
Eddy  went  out  with  her  flint-lock  on  the  rabbit- 
range,  and  this  was  a  part  of  the  result: 

"After  his  decease,  and  a  severe  casualty 
deemed  fatal  by  skilful  physicians,  we  discov 
ered  that  the  Principle  of  all  healing  and  the 
law  that  governs  it  is  God,  a  divine  Principle, 
and  a  spiritual  not  material  law,  and  regained 
health." — Preface  to  Science  and  Health,  first 
revision,  1883. 

N.B.  Not  from  the  book  itself;  from  the  Preface. 


"3 

You  will  notice  the  awkwardness  of  that 
English.  If  you  should  carry  that  paragraph 
up  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 
in  order  to  find  out  for  good  and  all  whether 
the  fatal  casualty  happened  to  the  dead  man — 
as  the  paragraph  almost  asserts — or  to  some 
person  or  persons  not  even  hinted  at  in  the 
paragraph,  the  Supreme  Court  would  be  obliged 
to  say  that  the  evidence  established  nothing 
with  certainty  except  that  there  had  been  a  cas 
ualty — victim  not  known. 

The  context  thinks  it  explains  who  the  vic 
tim  was,  but  it  does  nothing  of  the  kind.  It 
furnishes  some  guessing-material  of  a  sort  which 
enables  you  to  infer  that  it  was  "  we  "  that  suf 
fered  the  mentioned  injury,  but  if  you  should 
carry  the  language  to  a  court  you  would  not  be 
able  to  prove  that  it  necessarily  meant  that. 
"  We  "  are  Mrs.  Eddy;  a  funny  little  affectation. 
She  replaced  it  later  with  the  more  dignified 
third  person. 

The  quoted  paragraph  is  from  Mrs.  Eddy's 
preface  to  the  first  revision  of  Science  and 
Health  (1883).  Sixty-four  pages  further  along 
— in  the  body  of  the  book  (the  elephant-range), 


H4 

she  went  out  with  that  same  flint-lock  and  got 
this  following  result.  Its  English  is  very  near 
ly  as  straight  and  clean  and  competent  as  is  the 
English  of  the  latest  revision  of  Science  and 
Health  after  the  gun  has  been  improved  from 
smooth-bore  musket  up  to  globe-sighted,  long 
distance  rifle: 

"  Man  controlled  by  his  Maker  has  no  phys 
ical  suffering.  His  body  is  harmonious,  his 
days  are  multiplying  instead  of  diminishing, 
he  is  journeying  towards  Life  instead  of  death, 
and  bringing  out  the  new  man  arid  crucifying 
the  old  affections,  cutting  them  off  in  every 
material  direction  until  he  learns  the  utter  su 
premacy  of  Spirit  and  yields  obedience  there 
to." 

In  the  latest  revision  of  Science  and  Health 
(1902),  the  perfected  gun  furnishes  the  follow 
ing.  The  English  is  clean,  compact,  dignified, 
almost  perfect.  But  it  is  observable  that  it  is 
not  prominently  better  than  it  is  in  the  above 
paragraph,  which  was  a  product  of  the  primitive 
flint-lock: 

"  How  unreasonable  is  the  belief  that  we  are 


"5 

wearing  out  life  and  hastening  to  death,  and 
at  the  same  time  we  are  communing  with  im 
mortality  ?  If  the  departed  are  in  rapport  with 
mortality,  or  matter,  they  are  not  spiritual,  but 
must  still  be  mortal,  sinful,  suffering,  and  dy 
ing.  Then  wherefore  look  to  them — even  were 
communication  possible — for  proofs  of  immor 
tality  and  accept  them  as  oracles?" — Edition 
of  1902,  page  78. 

With  the  above  paragraphs  compare  these 
that  follow.  It  is  Mrs.  Eddy  writing — after  a 
good  long  twenty  years  of  pen-practice.  Com 
pare  also  with  the  alleged  Poems  already 
quoted.  The  prominent  characteristic  of  the 
Poems  is  affectation,  artificiality;  their  make 
up  is  a  complacent  and  pretentious  outpour  of 
false  figures  and  fine  writing,  in  the  sopho- 
moric  style.  The  same  qualities  and  the  same 
style  will  be  found,  unchanged,  unbettered,  in 
these  following  paragraphs — after  a  lapse  of 
more  than  fifty  years,  and  after — as  "aforesaid 
— long  literary  training.  The  italics  are  mine : 

i.  "What  plague  spot  or  bacilli  were  [sic] 
gnawing  [sic]  at  the  heart  of  this  metropolis  .  .  . 


n6 


and  bringing  it  [the  heart]  on  bended  knee? 
Why,  it  was  an  institute  that  had  entered  its 
vitals — that,  among  other  things,  taught  games," 
et  cetera. — C.  S.  Journal,  p.  670,  article  entitled 
"  A  Narrative— by  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy." 

2.  "Parks  sprang  up  [sic]  .  .  .  electric-cars 
run  [sic]  merrily  through  several  streets,  con 
crete  sidewalks  and  macadamized  roads  dotted 
[sic]  the  place/'  et  cetera. — Ibid. 

3.  "Shorn  [sic]  of  its  suburbs  it  had  indeed 
little  left  to  admire,  save  to  [sic]  such  as  fancy 
a  skeleton  above  ground  breathing  [sic]  slowly 
through  a  barren  [sic]  breast."— Ibid. 

This  is  not  English — I  mean,  grown-up  Eng 
lish.  But  it  is  fifteen-year-old  English,  and  has 
not  grown  a  month  since  the  same  mind  pro 
duced  the  Poems.  The  standard  of  the  Poems 
and  of  the  plague-spot-and-bacilli  effort  is  ex 
actly  the  same.  It  is  most  strange  that  the 
same  intellect  that  worded  the  simple  and  self- 
contained  and  clean-cut  paragraph  beginning 
with  "  How  unreasonable  is  the  belief,"  should 
in  the  very  same  lustrum  discharge  upon  the 
world  such  a  verbal  chaos  as  the  utterance 
concerning  that  plague-spot  or  bacilli  which 


"7 

were  gnawing  at  the  insides  of  the  metropolis 
and  bringing  its  heart  on  bended  knee,  thus 
exposing  to  the  eye  the  rest  of  the  skeleton 
breathing  slowly  through  a  barren  breast. 

The  immense  contrast  between  the  legitimate 
English  of  Science  and  Health  and  the  bastard 
English  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  miscellaneous  work,  and 
between  the  maturity  of  the  one  diction  and  the 
juvenility  of  the  other,  suggests — compels — 
the  question,  Are  there  two  guns?  It  would 
seem  so.  Is  there  a  poor,  foolish,  old,  scattering 
flint-lock  for  rabbit,  and  a  long-range,  centre- 
driving,  up-to-date  Mauser-magazine  for  ele 
phant?  It  looks  like  it.  For  it  is  observable 
that  in  Science  and  Health  (the  elephant- 
ground)  the  practice  was  good  at  the  start  and 
has  remained  so,  and  that  the  practice  in  the 
miscellaneous,  outside,  small -game  field  was 
very  bad  at  the  start  and  was  never  less  bad 
at  any  later  time. 

I  wish  to  say  that  of  Mrs.  Eddy  I  am  not  re 
quiring  perfect  English,  but  only  good  English. 
No  one  can  write  perfect  English  and  keep  it  up 
through  a  stretch  of  ten  chapters.  It  has  never 
been  done.  It  was  approached  in  the  "  well  of 


nS 


English  undefiled";  it  has  been  approached  in 
Mrs.  Eddy's  Annex  to  that  Book;  it  has  been 
approached  in  several  English  grammars;  I 
have  even  approached  it  myself;  but  none  of 
us  has  made  port. 

Now,  the  English  of  Science  and  Health  is 
good.  In  passages  to  be  found  in  Mrs.  Eddy's 
Autobiography  (on  pages  53,  57,  101,  and  113), 
and  on  page  6  of  her  squalid  preface  to  Science 
and  Health,  first  revision,  she  seems  to  me  to 
claim  the  whole  and  sole  authorship  of  the 
book.  That  she  wrote  the  Autobiography,  and 
that  preface?  and  the  Poems,  and  the  Plague- 
spot -Bacilli,  we  are  not  permitted  to  doubt. 
Indeed,  we  know  she  wrote  them.  But  the 
very  certainty  that  she  wrote  these  things  com 
pels  a  doubt  that  she  wrote  Science  and  Health. 
She  is  guilty  of  little  awkwardnesses  of  expres 
sion  in  the  Autobiography  which  a  practised 
pen  would  hardly  allow  to  go  unconnected  in 
even  a  hasty  private  letter,  and  could  not  dream 
of  passing  by  uncorrected  in  passages  intended 
for  print.  But  she  passes  them  placidly  by;  as 
placidly  as  if  she  did  not  suspect  that  they  were 

1  See  Appendix  A  for  it. — M.  T. 


offences  against  third-class  English.  I  think 
that  that  placidity  was  born  of  that  very  un- 
awareness,  so  to  speak.  I  will  cite  a  few  in 
stances  from  the  Autobiography.  The  italics 
are  mine: 

"  I  remember  reading  in  my  childhood  cer 
tain  manuscripts  containing  Scriptural  Sonnets, 
besides  other  verses  and  enigmas, ' '  etc.  Page  7 . 

[On  page  27.]  "Many  pale  cripples  went 
into  the  Church  leaning  on  crutches  who  came 
out  carrying  them  on  their  shoulders." 

It  is  awkward,  because  at  the  first  glance  it 
seems  to  say  that  the  cripples  went  in  leaning 
on  crutches  which  went  out  carrying  the  crip 
ples  on  their  shoulders.  It  would  have  cost 
her  no  trouble  to  put  her  "who"  after  her 
"cripples."  I  blame  her  a  little;  I  think  her 
proof-reader  should  have  been  shot.  We  may 
let  her  capital  C  pass,  but  it  is  another  awk 
wardness,  for  she  is  talking  about  a  building, 
not  about  a  religious  society. 

"Marriage  and  Parentage'*  [Chapter-head 
ing.  Page  30].  You  imagine  that  she  is  going 
to  begin  a  talk  about  her  marriage  and  finish 


120 


with  some  account  of  her  father  and  mother. 
And  so  you  will  be  deceived.  "  Marriage  "  was 
right,  but  "Parentage"  was  not  the  best  word 
for  the  rest  of  the  record.  It  refers  to  the  birth 
of  her  own  child.  After  a  certain  'period  of 
time  "my  babe  was  born."  Marriage  and 
Motherhood — Marriage  and  Maternity — Mar 
riage  and  Product — Marriage  and  Dividend — 
either  of  these  would  have  fitted  the  facts  and 
made  the  matter  clear. 

"Without  my  knowledge  he  was  appointed 
a  guardian. ' '  Page  3  2 . 

She  is  speaking  of  her  child.  She  means  that 
a  guardian  for  her  child  was  appointed^  but 
that  isn't  what  she  says. 

"  If  spiritual  conclusions  are  separated  from 
their  premises,  the  nexus  is  lost,  and  the  argu 
ment  with  its  rightful  conclusions,  becomes 
correspondingly  obscure."  Page  34. 

We  shall  never  know  why  she  put  the  word 
"correspondingly"  in  there.  Any  fine,  large 
word  would  have  answered  just  as  well :  psycho- 


121 


superintangibly  —  electroincandescently  —  oli- 
garcheologically  —  sanchrosynchrostereoptical- 
ly — any  of  these  would  have  answered,  any  of 
these  would  have  filled  the  void. 

"His  spiritual  noumenon  and  phenomenon 
silenced  portraiture."  Page  34. 

Yet  she  says  she  forgot  everything  she  knew, 
when  she  discovered  Christian  Science.  I  real 
ize  that  noumenon  is  a  daisy;  and  I  will  not 
deny  that  I  shall  use  it  whenever  I  am  in  a  com 
pany  which  I  think  I  can  embarrass  with  it; 
but,  at  the  same  time,  I  think  it  is  out  of  place 
among  friends  in  an  autobiography.  There,  I 
think  a  person  ought  not  to  have  anything  up 
his  sleeve.  It  undermines  confidence.  But 
my  dissatisfaction  with  the  quoted  passage  is 
not  on  account  of  noumenon ;  it  is  on  account  of 
the  misuse  of  the  word  "  silenced. "  You  can 
not  silence  portraiture  with  a  noumenon;  if 
portraiture  should  make  a  noise,  a  way  could  be 
found  to  silence  it,  but  even  then  it  could  not 
be  done  with  a  noumenon.  Not  even  with  a 
brick,  some  authorities  think. 


122 


"  It  may  be  that  the  mortal  life-battle  still 
wages,"  etc.  Page  35. 

That  is  clumsy.  Battles  do  not  wage,  bat 
tles  are  waged.  Mrs.  Eddy  has  one  very  curi 
ous  and  interesting  peculiarity:  whenever  she 
notices  that  she  is  chortling  along  without  say 
ing  anything,  she  pulls  up  with  a  sudden  "  God 
is  over  us  all,"  or  some  other  sounding  irrele 
vancy,  and  for  the  moment  it  seems  to  light  up 
the  whole  district;  then,  before  you  can  recover 
from  the  shock,  she  goes  flitting  pleasantly  and 
meaninglessly  along  again,  and  you  hurry  hope 
fully  after  her,  thinking  you  are  going  to  get 
something  this  time;  but  as  soon  as  she  has  led 
you  far  enough  away  from  her  turkeylet  she 
takes  to  a  tree.  Whenever  she  discovers  that 
she  is  getting  pretty  disconnected,  she  couples- 
up  with  an  ostentatious  "  But "  which  has  noth 
ing  to  do  with  anything  that  went  before  or  is 
to  come  after,  then  she  hitches  some  empties  to 
the  train — unrelated  verses  from  the  Bible,  usu 
ally — and  steams  out  of  sight  and  leaves  you 
wondering  how  she  did  that  clever  thing.  For 
striking  instances,  see  bottom  paragraph  on 


123 

page  34  and  the  paragraph  on  page  35  of  her 
Autobiograyhy.  She  has  a  purpose — a  deep  and 
dark  and  artful  purpose — in  what  she  is  saying 
in  the  first  paragraph,  and  you  guess  what  it  is, 
but  that  is  due  to  your  own  talent,  not  hers; 
she  has  made  it  as  obscure  as  language  could 
do  it.  The  other  paragraph  has  no  meaning 
and  no  discoverable  intention.  It  is  merely 
one  of  her  God-over-alls.  I  cannot  spare  room 
for  it  in  this  place.1 

"  I  beheld  with  ineffable  awe  our  great  Mas 
ter's  marvellous  skill  in  demanding  neither 
obedience  to  hygienic  laws  nor,"  etc.  Page  41. 

The  word  is  loosely  chosen  —  skill.  She 
probably  meant  judgment,  intuition,  penetra 
tion,  or  wisdom. 

"  Naturally,  my  first  jottings  were  but  efforts 
to  express  in  feeble  diction  Truth's  ultimate." 
Page  42. 

One  understands  what  she  means,  but  she 
should  have  been  able  to  say  what  she  meant — 
1  See  Appendix  B.— M.  T. 


124 

at  any  time  before  she  discovered  Christian 
Science  and  forgot  everything  she  knew — and 
after  it,  too.  If  she  had  put  "  feeble  "  in  front 
of  "efforts"  and  then  left  out  "in"  and  "dic 
tion,"  she  would  have  scored. 

"...  its  written  expression  increases  in  per 
fection  under  the  guidance  of  the  great  Mas 
ter."  Page  43. 

It  is  an  error.  Not  even  in  those  advanta 
geous  circumstances  can  increase  be  added  to 
perfection. 

"  Evil  is  not  mastered  by  evil;  it  can  only  be 
overcome  with  Good.  This  brings  out  the 
nothingness  of  evil,  and  the  eternal  Something- 
ness  vindicates  the  Divine  Principle  and  im 
proves  the  race  of  Adam."  Page  76. 

This  is  too  extraneous  for  me.  That  is  the 
trouble  with  Mrs.  Eddy  when  she  sets  out 
to  explain  an  over -large  exhibit:  the  min 
ute  you  think  the  light  is  bursting  upon  you 
the  candle  goes  out  and  your  mind  begins  to 
wander. 


125 

"  No  one  else  can  drain  the  cup  which  I  have 
drunk  to  the  dregs,  as  the  discoverer  and  teacher 
of  Christian  Science."  Page  47. 

That  is  saying  we  cannot  empty  an  empty 
cup.  We  knew  it  before;  and  we  know  she 
meant  to  tell  us  that  that  particular  cup  is  go 
ing  to  remain  empty.  That  is,  we  think  that 
that  was  the  idea,  but  we  cannot  be  sure.  She 
has  a  perfectly  astonishing  talent  for  putting 
words  together  in  such  a  way  as  to  make 
successful  inquiry  into  their  intention  im 
possible. 

She  generally  makes  us  uneasy  when  she  be 
gins  to  tune  up  on  her  fine- writing  timbrel.  It 
carries  me  back  to  her  Plague-Spot  and  Poetry 
days,  and  I  just  dread  those: 

"Into  mortal  mind's  material  obliquity  I 
gazed  and  stood  abashed.  Blanched  was  the 
cheek  of  pride.  My  heart  bent  low  before  the 
omnipotence  of  Spirit,  and  a  tint  of  humility 
soft  as  the  heart  of  a  moonbeam  mantled  the 
earth.  Bethlehem  and  Bethany,  Gethsemane 
and  Calvary,  spoke  to  my  chastened  sense  as 
by  the  tearful  lips  of  a  babe."  Page  48. 


126 


The  heart  of  a  moonbeam  is  a  pretty  enough 
Friendship's  -  Album  expression  —  let  it  pass, 
though  I  do  think  the  figure  a  little  strained; 
but  humility  has  no  tint,  humility  has  no  com 
plexion,  and  if  it  had  it  could  not  mantle  the 
earth.  A  moonbeam  might — I  do  not  know — 
but  she  did  not  say  it  was  the  moonbeam.  But 
let  it  go,  I  cannot  decide  it,  she  mixes  me  up  so. 
A  babe  hasn't  "  tearful  lips,"  it's  its  eyes.  You 
find  none  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  kind  of  English  in 
Science  and  Health — not  a  line  of  it. 


CHAPTER    III 

SETTING  aside  title-page,  index,  etc.,  the  little 
Autobiography  begins  on  page  7  and  ends  on 
page  130.  My  quotations  are  from  the  first 
forty  pages.  They  seem  to  me  to  prove  the 
presence  of  the  'prentice  hand.  The  style  of 
the  forty  pages  is  loose  and  feeble  and  'pren 
tice-like.  The  movement  of  the  narrative  is 
not  orderly  and  sequential,  but  rambles  around, 
and  skips  forward  and  back  and  here  and  there 
and  yonder,  'prentice-fashion.  Many  a  jour 
neyman  has  broken  up  his  narrative  and 
skipped  about  and  rambled  around,  but  he  did 
it  for  a  purpose,  for  an  advantage;  there  was 
art  in  it,  and  points  to  be  scored  by  it ;  the  ob 
servant  reader  perceived  the  game,  and  en 
joyed  it  and  respected  it,  if  it  was  well 
played.  But  Mrs.  Eddy's  performance  was 
without  intention,  and  destitute  of  art.  She 
could  score  no  points  by  it  on  those  terms, 
and  almost  any  reader  can  see  that  her 


128 


work  was  the  uncalculated  puttering  of  a 
novice. 

In  the  above  paragraph  I  have  described  the 
first  third  of  the  booklet.  That  third  being 
completed,  Mrs.  Eddy  leaves  the  rabbit-range, 
crosses  the  frontier,  and  steps  out  upon  her 
far  -  spreading  big  -  game  territory — Christian 
Science — and  there  is  an  instant  change!  The 
style  smartly  improves,  and  the  clumsy  little 
technical  offences  disappear.  In  these  two- 
thirds  of  the  booklet  I  find  only  one  such  of 
fence,  and  it  has  the  look  of  being  a  printer's 
error. 

I  leave  the  riddle  with  the  reader.  Perhaps 
he  can  explain  how  it  is  that  a  person — trained 
or  untrained — who  on  the  one  day  can  write 
nothing  better  than  Plague -Spot -Bacilli  and 
feeble  and  stumbling  and  wandering  personal 
history  littered  with  false  figures  and  obscu 
rities  and  technical  blunders,  can  on  the  next 
day  sit  down  and  write  fluently,  smoothly, 
compactly,  capably,  and  confidently  on  a  great 
big  thundering  subject,  and  do  it  as  easily  and 
comfortably  as  a  whale  paddles  around  the 
globe. 


129 

As  for  me,  I  have  scribbled  so  much  in  fifty 
years  that  I  have  become  saturated  with  con 
victions  of  one  sort  and  another  concerning  a 
scribbler's  limitations;  and  these  are  so  strong 
that  when  I  am  familiar  with  a  literary  per 
son's  work  I  feel  perfectly  sure  that  I  know 
enough  about  his  limitations  to  know  what  he 
can  not  do.  If  Mr.  Howells  should  pretend  to 
me  that  he  wrote  the  Plague  -  Spot  -  Bacilli 
rhapsody,  I  should  receive  the  statement  cour 
teously,  but  I  should  know  it  for  a — well,  for  a 
perversion.  If  the  late  Josh  Billings  should 
rise  up  and  tell  me  that  he  wrote  Herbert 
Spencer's  philosophies,  I  should  answer  and 
say  that  the  spelling  casts  a  doubt  upon  his 
claim.  If  the  late  Jonathan  Edwards  should 
rise  up  and  tell  me  he  wrote  Mr.  Dooley's  books, 
I  should  answer  and  say  that  the  marked  differ 
ence  between  his  style  and  Dooley's  is  argu 
ment  against  the  soundness  of  his  statement. 
You  see  how  much  I  think  of  circumstantial 
evidence.  In  literary  matters — in  my  belief— 
it  is  often  better  than  any  person's  word,  better 
than  any  shady  character's  oath.  It  is  diffi 
cult  for  me  to  believe  that  the  same  hand  that 


I3Q 

wrote  the  Plague-Spot-Bacilli  and  the  first 
third  of  the  little  Eddy  biography  wrote  also 
Science  and  Health.  Indeed,  it  is  more  than 
difficult,  it  is  impossible. 

Largely  speaking,  I  have  read  acres  of  what 
purported  to  be  Mrs.  Eddy's  writings,  in  the 
past  two  months.  I  cannot  know,  but  I  am 
convinced,  that  the  circumstantial  evidence 
shows  that  her  actual  share  in  the  work  of  com 
posing  and  phrasing  these  things  was  so  slight 
as  to  be  inconsequential.  Where  she  puts  her 
literary  foot  down,  her  trail  across  her  paid  pol 
isher's  page  is  as  plain  as  the  elephant's  in  a 
Sunday-school  procession.  Her  verbal  output, 
when  left  undoctored  by  her  clerks,  is  quite 
unmistakable.  It  always  exhibits  the  strong 
ly  distinctive  features  observable  in  the  virgin 
passages  from  her  pen  already  quoted  by  me: 

Desert  vacancy,  as  regards  thought. 

Self-complacency. 

Puerility. 

Sentimentality. 

Affectations  of  scholarly  learning. 

Lust  after  eloquent  and  flowery  expression. 

Repetition  of  pet  poetic  picturesquenesses. 


Confused  and  wandering  statement. 

Metaphor  gone  insane. 

Meaningless  words,  used  because  they  are 
pretty,  or  showy,  or  unusual. 

Sorrowful  attempts  at  the  epigrammatic. 

Destitution  of  originality. 

The  fat  volume  called  Miscellaneous  Writ 
ings  of  Mrs.  Eddy  contains  several  hundred 
pages.  Of  the  five  hundred  and  fifty -four 
pages  of  prose  in  it  I  find  ten  lines,  on  page 
319,  to  be  Mrs.  Eddy's;  also  about  a  page  of 
the  preface  or  "Prospectus";  also  about  fif 
teen  pages  scattered  along  through  the  book. 
If  she  wrote  any  of  the  rest  of  the  prose,  it  was 
rewritten  after  her  by  another  hand.  Here  I 
will  insert  two-thirds  of  her  page  of  the  pros 
pectus.  It  is  evident  that  whenever,  under 
the  inspiration  of  the  Deity,  she  turns  out  a 
book,  she  is  always  allowed  to  do  some  of  the 
preface.  I  wonder  why  that  is?  It  always 
mars  the  work.  I  think  it  is  done  in  humor 
ous  malice.  I  think  the  clerks  like  to  see  her 
give  herself  away.  They  know  she  will,  her 
stock  of  usable  materials  being  limited  and  her 
procedure  in  employing  them  always  the  same, 


132 

substantially.  They  know  that  when  the  ini 
tiated  come  upon  her  first  erudite  allusion,  or 
upon  any  one  of  her  other  stage-properties, 
they  can  shut  their  eyes  and  tell  what  will  fol 
low.  She  usually  throws  off  an  easy  remark 
all  sodden  with  Greek  or  Hebrew  or  Latin  learn 
ing;  she  usually  has  a  person  watching  for  a 
star — she  can  seldom  get  away  from  that  poetic 
idea — sometimes  it  is  a  Chaldee,  sometimes  a 
Walking  Delegate,  sometimes  an  entire  stran 
ger,  but  be  he  what  he  may,  he  is  generally 
there  when  the  train  is  ready  to  move,  and  has 
his  pass  in  his  hat-band;  she  generally  has  a 
Being  with  a  Dome  on  him,  or  some  other  cover 
that  is  unusual  and  out  of  the  fashion;  she  likes 
to  fire  off  a  Scripture-verse  where  it  will  make 
the  handsomest  noise  and  come  nearest  to 
breaking  the  connection;  she  often  throws  out 
a  Forefelt,  or  a  Foresplendor,  or  a  Foreslander 
where  it  will  have  a  fine  nautical  foreto'gallaiit 
sound  and  make  the  sentence  sing;  after  which 
she  is  nearly  sure  to  throw  discretion  away  and 
take  to  her  deadly  passion,  Intoxicated  Meta 
phor.  At  such  a  time  the  Mrs.  Eddy  that  does 
not  hesitate  is  lost: 


J33 

"  The  ancient  Greek  looked  longingly  for  the 
Olympiad.  The  Chaldee  watched  the  appear 
ing  of  a  star;  to  him  no  higher  destiny  dawned 
on  the  dome  of  being  than  that  foreshadowed 
by  signs  in  the  heavens.  The  meek  Nazarene, 
the  scoffed  of  all  scoffers,  said,  *  Ye  can  discern 
the  face  of  the  sky;  but  can  ye  not  discern  the 
signs  of  the  times?' — for  He  forefelt  and  fore 
saw  the  ordeal  of  a  perfect  Christianity,  hated 
by  sinners. 

"  To  kindle  all  minds  with  a  gleam  of  grati 
tude,  the  new  idea  that  comes  welling  up  from 
infinite  Truth  needs  to  be  understood.  The 
seer  of  this  age  should  be  a  sage. 

"  Humility  is  the  stepping-stone  to  a  higher 
recognition  of  Deity.  The  mounting  sense 
gathers  fresh  forms  and  strange  fire  from  the 
ashes  of  dissolving  self,  and  drops  the  world. 
Meekness  heightens  immortal  attributes,  only 
by  removing  the  dust  that  dims  them.  Good* 
ness  reveals  another  scene  and  another  self 
seemingly  rolled  up  in  shades,  but  brought  to 
light  by  the  evolutions  of  advancing  thought, 
whereby  we  discern  the  power  of  Truth  and 
Love  to  heal  the  sick. 

"  Pride  is  ignorance;  those  assume  most  who 
have  the  least  wisdom  or  experience;  and  they 


134 

steal  from  their  neighbor,  because  they  have  so 
little  of  their  own." — Miscellaneous  Writings, 
page  i,  and  six  lines  at  top  of  page  2. 

It  is  not  believable  that  the  hand  that  wrote 
those  clumsy  and  affected  sentences  wrote  the 
smooth  English  of  Science  and  Health. 


CHAPTER    IV 

IT  is  often  said  in  print  that  Mrs.  Eddy  claims 
that  God  was  the  Author  of  Science  and  Health. 
Mr.  Peabody  states  in  his  pamphlet  that  "  she 
says  not  she  but  God  was  the  Author."  I  can 
not  find  that  in  her  autobiography  she  makes 
this  transference  of  the  authorship,  but  I  think 
that  in  it  she  definitely  claims  that  she  did  her 
work  under  His  inspiration — definitely  for  her; 
for  as  a  rule  she  is  not  a  very  definite  person, 
even  when  she  seems  to  be  trying  her  best  to 
be  clear  and  positive.  Speaking  of  the  early 
days  when  her  Science  was  beginning  to  unfold 
itself  and  gather  form  in  her  mind,  she  says 
(Autobiography,  page  43) : 

"  The  divine  hand  led  me  into  a  new  world  of 
light  and  Life,  a  fresh  universe — old  to  God, 
but  new  to  His  'little  one/" 

She  being  His  little  one,  as  I  understand  it. 


136 

The  divine  hand  led  her.  It  seems  to  mean 
"God  inspired  me";  but  when  a  person  uses 
metaphors  instead  of  statistics — and  that  is 
Mrs.  Eddy's  common  fashion — one  cannot  al 
ways  feel  sure  about  the  intention. 

[Page  56.]  "Even  the  Scripture  gave  no 
direct  interpretation  of  the  Scientific  basis  for 
demonstrating  the  spiritual  Principle  of  heal 
ing,  until  our  Heavenly  Father  saw  fit,  through 
the  Key  to  the  Scriptures,  in  Science  and  Health, 
to  unlock  this  '  mystery  of  godliness/ ' 

Another  baffling  metaphor.  If  she  had  used 
plain  forecastle  English,  and  said  "  God  wrote 
the  Key  and  I  put  it  in  my  book  " ;  or  if  she  had 
said  "God  furnished  me  the  solution  of  the 
mystery  and  I  put  it  on  paper  " ;  or  if  she  had 
said  "God  did  it  all,"  then  we  should  under 
stand  ;  but  her  phrase  is  open  to  any  and  all  of 
those  translations,  and  is  a  Key  which  unlocks 
nothing — for  us.  However,  it  seems  to  at 
least  mean  "God  inspired  me,"  if  nothing 
more. 

There  was  personal  and  intimate  commun 
ion,  at  any  rate — we  get  that  much  out  of  the 


137 

riddles.  The  connection  extended  to  business, 
after  the  establishment  of  the  teaching  and 
healing  industry. 

[Page  71.]  "When  God  impelled  me  to  set 
a  price  on  my  instruction/'  etc.  Further  down : 
"God  has  since  shown  me,  in  multitudinous 
ways,  the  wisdom  of  this  decision." 

She  was  not  able  to  think  of  a  "financial 
equivalent" — meaning  a  pecuniary  equivalent 
— for  her  "instruction  in  Christian  Science 
Mind-healing.*'  In  this  emergency  she  was 
"led"  to  charge  three  hundred  dollars  for  a 
term  of  "  twelve  half-days/'  She  does  not  say 
who  led  her,  she  only  says  that  the  amount 
greatly  troubled  her.  I  think  it  means  that 
the  price  was  suggested  from  above,  "led"  be 
ing  a  theological  term  identical  with  our  com 
mercial  phrase  "personally  conducted."  She 
"  shrank  from  asking  it,  but  was  finally  led,  by 
a  strange  providence,  to  accept  this  fee/* 
"Providence"  is  another  theological  term. 
Two  leds  and  a  providence,  taken  together, 
make  a  pretty  strong  argument  for  inspiration. 
I  think  that  these  statistics  make  it  clear  that 


138 

the  price  was  arranged  above.  This  view  is 
constructively  supported  by  the  fact,  already 
quoted,  that  God  afterwards  approved,  "in 
multitudinous  ways,"  her  wisdom  in  accepting 
the  mentioned  fee.  "Multitudinous  ways" — 
multitudinous  encoring — suggests  enthusiasm. 
Business  enthusiasm.  And  it  suggests  near 
ness.  God's  nearness  to  his  "  little  one."  Near 
ness,  and  a  watchful  personal  interest.  A 
warm,  palpitating,  Standard -Oil  interest,  so 
to  speak.  All  this  indicates  inspiration.  We 
may  assume,  then,  two  inspirations :  one  for  the 
book,  the  other  for  the  business. 

The  evidence  for  inspiration  is  further  aug 
mented  by  the  testimony  of  Rev.  George  Tom- 
kins,  D.D.,  already  quoted,  that  Mrs.  Eddy  and 
her  book  were  foretold  in  Revelation,  and 
that  Mrs.  Eddy  "is  God's  brightest  thought  to 
this  age,  giving  us  the  spiritual  interpretation 
of  the  Bible  in  the  'little  book'  "  of  the  Angel. 

I  am  aware  that  it  is  not  Mr.  Tomkins  that  is 
speaking,  but  Mrs.  Eddy.  The  commissioned 
lecturers  of  the  Christian  Science  Church  have 
to  be  members  of  the  Board  of  Lectureship. 
(By-laws,  Sec.  2,  p.  70.)  The  Board  of  Lect- 


139 

ureship  is  selected  by  the  Board  of  Directors 
of  the  Church.  (By-laws,  Sec.  3,  p.  70.)  The 
Board  of  Directors  of  the  Church  is  the  prop 
erty  of  Mrs.  Eddy.  (By-laws,  p.  22.)  Mr. 
Tomkins  did  not  make  that  statement  with 
out  authorization  from  headquarters.  He  nec 
essarily  got  it  from  the  Board  of  Directors, 
the  Board  of  Directors  from  Mrs.  Eddy,  Mrs. 
Eddy  from  the  Deity.  Mr.  Tomkins  would 
have  been  turned  down  by  that  procession  if 
his  remarks  had  been  unsatisfactory  to  it. 

It  may  be  that  there  is  evidence  somewhere 
— as  has  been  claimed — that  Mrs.  Eddy  has 
charged  upon  the  Deity  the  verbal  authorship 
of  Science  and  Health.  But  if  she  ever  made 
the  charge,  she  has  withdrawn  it  (as  it  seems 
to  me),  and  in  the  most  formal  and  unqualified 
of  all  ways.  See  Autobiography,  page  57: 

"  When  the  demand  for  this  book  increased 
.  .  .  the  copyright  was  infringed.  I  entered  a 
suit  at  Law,  and  my  copyright  was  protected." 

Thus  it  is  plain  that  she  did  not  plead  that 
the  Deity  was  the  (verbal)  Author;  for  if  she 


140 

had  done  that,  she  would  have  lost  her  case — 
and  with  rude  promptness.  It  was  in  the  old 
days  before  the  Berne  Convention  and  before 
the  passage  of  our  amended  law  of  1891,  and 
the  court  would  have  quoted  the  following 
stern  clause  from  the  existing  statute  and 
frowned  her  out  of  the  place: 

"  No  Foreigner  can  acquire  copyright  in  the 
United  States/1 

To  sum  up.  The  evidence  before  me  indi 
cates  three  things : 

1.  That  Mrs.  Eddy  claims  the  verbal  author 
ship  for  herself. 

2.  That  she  denies  it  to  the  Deity. 

3.  That— in  her  belief — she  wrote  the  book 
under  the  inspiration  of  the  Deity,  but  fur 
nished  the  language  herself. 

In  one  place  in  the  Autobiography  she  claims 
both  the  language  and  the  ideas;  but  when  this 
witness  is  testifying,  one  must  draw  the  line 
somewhere,  or  she  will  prove  both  sides  of  her 
case — nine  sides,  if  desired. 

It  is  too  true.  Much  too  true.  Many,  many 
times  too  true.  She  is  a  most  trying  witness — 
the  most  trying  witness  that  ever  kissed  the 


Book,  I  am  sure.  There  is  no  keeping  up  with 
her  erratic  testimony.  As  soon  as  you  have 
got  her  share  of  the  authorship  nailed  where 
you  half  hope  and  half  believe  it  will  stay  and 
cannot  be  joggled  loose  any  more,  she  joggles  it 
loose  again — or  seems  to;  you  cannot  be  sure, 
for  her  habit  of  dealing  in  meaningless  meta 
phors  instead  of  in  plain,  straightforward  sta 
tistics,  makes  it  nearly  always  impossible  to  tell 
just  what  it  is  she  is  trying  to  say.  She  was 
definite  when  she  claimed  both  the  language 
and  the  ideas  of  the  book.  That  seemed  to 
settle  the  matter.  It  seemed  to  distribute  the 
percentages  of  credit  with  precision  between 
the  collaborators:  ninety- two  per  cent,  to  Mrs. 
Eddy,  who  did  all  the  work,  and  eight  per  cent, 
to  the  Deity,  who  furnished  the  inspiration — 
not  enough  of  it  to  damage  the  copyright  in 
a  country  closed  against  .Foreigners,  and  yet 
plenty  to  advertise  the  book  and  market  it  at 
famine  rates.  Then  Mrs.  Eddy  does  not  keep 
still,  but  fetches  around  and  comes  forward 
and  testifies  again.  It  is  most  injudicious.  For 
she  resorts  to  metaphor  this  time,  and  it  makes 
trouble,  for  she  seems  to  reverse  the  percent- 


142 

ages  and  claim  only  the  eight  per  cent,  for  her 
self.  I  quote  from  Mr.  Peabody's  book  (Eddy- 
ism,  or  Christian  Science.  Boston:  15  Court 
Square,  price  twenty-five  cents) : 

"  Speaking  of  this  book,  Mrs.  Eddy,  in  Jan 
uary  last  (1901)  said:  '  I  should  blush  to  write 
of  Science  and  Health,  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures, 
as  I  have,  were  it  of  human  origin,  and  I,  apart 
from  God,  its  author ;  but  as  I  was  only  a  scribe 
echoing  the  harmonies  of  Heaven  in  divine 
metaphysics,  I  cannot  be  supermodest  of  the 
Christian  Science  text-book." 

Mr.  Peabody's  comment: 

"  Nothing  could  be  plainer  than  that.  Here 
is  a  distinct  avowal  that  the  book  entitled 
Science  and  Health  was  the  work  of  Almighty 
God." 

It  does  seem  to  amount  to  that.  She  was 
only  a  "  scribe."  Confound  the  word,  it  is  just 
a  confusion,  it  has  no  determinable  meaning 
there,  it  leaves  us  in  the  air.  A  scribe  is  merely 
a  person  who  writes.  He  may  be  a  copyist, 


M3 

he  may  be  an  amanuensis,  he  may  be  a  writer 
of  originals,  and  furnish  both  the  language  and 
the  ideas.  As  usual  with  Mrs.  Eddy,  the  con 
nection  affords  no  help — "echoing"  throws  no 
light  upon  "  scribe."  A  rock  can  reflect  an 
echo,  a  wall  can  do  it,  a  mountain  can  do  it, 
many  things  can  do  it,  but  a  scribe  can't.  A 
scribe  that  could  reflect  an  echo  could  get  over 
thirty  dollars  a  week  in  a  side-show.  Many 
impresarios  would  rather  have  him  than  a  cow 
with  four  tails.  If  we  allow  that  this  present 
scribe  was  setting  down  the  "  harmonies  of 
Heaven"  — and  certainly  that  seems  to  have 
been  the  case — then  there  was  only  one  way  to 
do  it  that  I  can  think  of:  listen  to  the  music 
and  put  down  the  notes  one  after  another  as 
they  fell.  In  that  case  Mrs.  Eddy  did  not  in 
vent  the  tune,  she  only  entered  it  on  paper. 
Therefore — dropping  the  metaphor — she  was 
merely  an  amanuensis,  and  furnished  neither 
the  language  of  Science  and  Health  nor  the 
ideas.  It  reduces  her  to  eight  per  cent,  (and 
the  dividends  on  that  and  the  rest). 

Is  that  it?     We  shall  never  know.     For  Mrs. 
Eddy  is  liable  to  testify  again  at  any  time.  But 


144 

until  she  does  it,  I  think  we  must  conclude  that 
the  Deity  was  Author  of  the  whole  book,  and 
Mrs.  Eddy  merely  His  telephone  and  stenog 
rapher.  Granting  this,  her  claim  as  the  Voice 
of  God  stands — for  the  present — justified  and 
established. 

POSTSCRIPT 

I  overlooked  something.  It  appears  that 
there  was  more  of  that  utterance  than  Mr.  Pea- 
body  has  quoted  in  the  above  paragraph.  It 
will  be  found  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  organ,  the  Chris 
tian  Science  Journal  (January,  1901)  and  reads 
as  follows: 

"  It  was  not  myself  .  .  .  which  dictated  Science 
and  Health,  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures.11 

That  is  certainly  clear  enough.  The  words 
which  I  have  removed  from  that  important  sen 
tence  explain  Who  it  was  that  did  the  dictating. 
It  was  done  by 

"the  divine  power  of  Truth  and  Love,  in 
finitely  above  me." 


M5 

Certainly  that  is  definite.  At  last,  through 
her  personal  testimony,  we  have  a  sure  grip 
upon  the  following  vital  facts,  and  they  settle 
the  authorship  of  Science  and  Health  beyond 
peradventure : 

1.  Mrs.  Eddy  furnished  "the  ideas  and  the 
language." 

2 .  God  furnished  the  ideas  and  the  language. 
It  is  a  great  comfort  to  have  the  matter  au 
thoritatively  settled. 


CHAPTER    V 

IT  is  hard  to  locate  her,  she  shifts  about  so 
much.  She  is  a  shining  drop  of  quicksilver 
which  you  put  your  finger  on  and  it  isn't  there. 
There  is  a  paragraph  in  the  Autobiography 
(page  96)  which  places  in  seemingly  darkly  sig 
nificant  procession  three  Personages : 

1.  The  Virgin  Mary. 

2.  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 

3.  Mrs.  Eddy. 

This  is  the  paragraph  referred  to: 

"  No  person  can  take  the  individual  place  of 
the  Virgin  Mary.  No  person  can  compass  or 
fulfil  the  individual  mission  of  Jesus  of  Naza 
reth.  No  person  can  take  the  place  of  the  au 
thor  of  Science  and  Health,  the  discoverer  and 
founder  of  Christian  Science.  Each  individual 
must  fill  his  own  niche  in  time  and  eternity." 

I  have  read  it  many  times,  but  I  still  cannot 
be  sure  that  I  rightly  understand  it.  If  the 


147 

Saviour's  name  had  been  placed  first  and  the 
Virgin  Mary's  second  and  Mrs.  Eddy's  third,  I 
should  draw  the  inference  that  a  descending 
scale  from  First  Importance  to  Second  Im 
portance  and  then  to  Small  Importance  was 
indicated;  but  to  place  the  Virgin  first,  the 
Saviour  second,  and  Mrs.  Eddy  third,  seems  to 
turn  the  scale  the  other  way  and  make  it  an 
ascending  scale  of  Importances,  with  Mrs.  Eddy 
ranking  the  other  two  and  holding  first  place. 
I  think  that  that  was  perhaps  the  intention, 
but  none  but  a  seasoned  Christian  Scientist 
can  examine  a  literary  animal  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
creation  and  tell  which  end  of  it  the  tail  is  on. 
She  is  easily  the  most  baffling  and  bewildering 
writer  in  the  literary  trade. 


EDDY  is  a  commonplace  name,  and  would 
have  an  unimpressive  aspect  in  the  list  of  the 
reformed  Holy  Family.  She  has  thought  of 
that.  In  the  book  of  By-laws  written  by  her 
— "  impelled  by  a  power  not  one's  own  " — there 
is  a  paragraph  which  explains  how  and  when 
her  disciples  came  to  confer  a  title  upon  her; 


148 

and  this  explanation  is  followed  by  a  warning 
as  to  what  will  happen  to  any  female  Scientist 
who  shall  desecrate  it: 

"  The  title  of  Mother.  Therefore  if  a  student 
of  Christian  Science  shall  apply  this  title,  either 
to  herself  or  to  others,  except  as  the  term  for 
kinship  according  to  the  flesh,  it  shall  be  re 
garded  by  the  Church  as  an  indication  of  disre 
spect  for  their  Pastor  Emeritus,  and  unfitness 
to  be  a  member  of  the  Mother-Church." 

She  is  the  Pastor  Emeritus. 

While  the  quoted  paragraph  about  the  Pro 
cession  seems  to  indicate  that  Mrs.  Eddy  is 
expecting  to  occupy  the  First  Place  in  it,  that 
expectation  is  not  definitely  avowed.  In  an 
earlier  utterance  of  hers  she  is  clearer — clearer, 
and  does  not  claim  the  first  place  all  to  herself, 
but  only  the  half  of  it.  I  quote  from  Mr. 
Peabody's  book  again: 

"  In  the  Christian  Science  Journal  for  April, 
1889,  when  it  was  her  property,  and  published 
by  her,  it  was  claimed  for  her,  and  with  her 
sanction,  that  she  was  equal  with  Jesus,  and 


149 

elaborate   effort  was   made   to   establish   the 
claim. 

"Mrs.  Eddy  has  distinctly  authorized  the 
claim  in  her  behalf  that  she  herself  was  the 
chosen  successor  to  and  equal  of  Jesus." 

In  her  Miscellaneous  Writings  (using  her  once 
favorite  "We"  for  "I")  she  says  that  "While 
we  entertain  decided  views  .  . .  and  shall  express 
them  as  duty  demands,  we  shall  claim  no  espe 
cial  gift  from  our  divine  origin,"  etc. 

Our  divine  origin.  It  suggests  Equal  again. 
It  is  inferable,  then,  that  in  the  near  by-and-by 
the  new  Church  will  officially  rank  the  Holy 
Family  in  the  following  order: 

1,  Jesus  of  Nazareth. — i.  Our  Mother. 

2.  The  Virgin  Mary. 

SUMMARY 

I  am  not  playing  with  Christian  Science  and 
its  founder,  I  am  examining  them ;  and  I  am  do 
ing  it  because  of  the  interest  I  feel  in  the  in 
quiry.  My  results  may  seem  inadequate  to  the 
reader,  but  they  have  for  me  clarified  a  muddle 


and  brought  a  sort  of  order  out  of  a  chaos,  and 
so  I  value  them. 

My  readings  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  uninspired  mis 
cellaneous  literary  efforts  have  convinced  me 
of  several  things : 

1.  That  she  did  not  write  Science  and  Health. 

2.  That  the  Deity  did  (or  did  not)  write  it. 

3.  That  She  thinks  She  wrote  it. 

4.  That  She  believes  She  wrote  it  under  the 
Deity's  inspiration. 

5.  That  She  believes  She  is  a  Member  of  the 
Holy  Family. 

6.  That  She  believes  She  is  the  equal  of  the 
Head  of  it. 

Finally,  I  think  She  is  now  entitled  to  the 
capital  S — on  her  own  evidence. 


CHAPTER    VI 

THUS  far  we  have  a  part  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  por 
trait.  Not  made  of  fictions,  surmises,  reports, 
rumors,  innuendoes,  dropped  by  her  enemies; 
no,  she  has  furnished  all  of  the  materials  herself, 
and  laid  them  on  the  canvas,  under  my  general 
superintendence  and  direction.  As  far  as  she 
has  gone  with  it,  it  is  the  presentation  of  a  com 
placent,  commonplace,  illiterate  New  England 
woman  who  "forgot  everything  she  knew" 
when  she  discovered  her  discovery,  then  wrote 
a  Bible  in  good  English  under  the  inspiration  of 
God,  and  climbed  up  it  to  the  supremest  sum 
mit  of  earthly  grandeur  attainable  by  man — 
where  she  sits  serene  to-day,  beloved  and  wor 
shipped  by  a  multitude  of  human  beings  of  as 
good  average  intelligence  as  is  possessed  by 
those  that  march  under  the  banner  of  any  com 
peting  cult.  This  is  not  intended  to  flatter  the 
competing  cults,  it  is  merely  a  statement  of  cold 
fact. 


That  a  commonplace  person  should  go  climb 
ing  aloft  and  become  a  god  or  a  half -god  or  a 
quarter-god  and  be  worshipped  by  men  and 
women  of  average  intelligence,  is  nothing.  It 
has  happened  a  million  times,  it  will  happen  a 
hundred  million  more.  It  has  been  millions  of 
years  since  the  first  of  these  supernaturals  ap 
peared,  and  by  the  time  the  last  one — in  that 
inconceivably  remote  future — shall  have  per 
formed  his  solemn  little  high-jinks  on  the  stage 
and  closed  the  business,  there  will  be  enough  of 
them  accumulated  in  the  museum  on  the  Other 
Side  to  start  a  heaven  of  their  own — and  jam  it. 

Each  in  his  turn  those  little  supernaturals  of 
our  by -gone  ages  and  aeons  joined  the  monster 
procession  of  his  predecessors  and  marched 
horizonward,  disappeared,  and  was  forgotten. 
They  changed  nothing,  they  built  nothing,  they 
left  nothing  behind  them  to  remember  them  by, 
nothing  to  hold  their  disciples  together,  noth 
ing  to  solidify  their  work  and  enable  it  to  defy 
the  assaults  of  time  and  the  weather.  They 
passed,  and  left  a  vacancy.  They  made  one 
fatal  mistake ;  they  all  made  it,  each  in  his  turn : 
they  failed  to  organize  their  forces,  they  failed 


153 

to  centralize  their  strength,  they  failed  to  pro 
vide  a  fresh  Bible  and  a  sure  and  perpetual  cash 
income  for  business,  and  often  they  failed  to 
provide  a  new  and  accepted  Divine  Personage 
to  worship. 

Mrs.  Eddy  is  not  of  that  small  fry.  The  ma 
terials  that  go  to  the  making  of  the  rest  of  her 
portrait  will  prove  it.  She  will  furnish  them 
herself: 

She  published  her  book.  She  copyrighted 
it.  She  copyrights  everything.  If  she  should 
say,  " Good-morning ;  how  do  you  do?"  she 
would  copyright  it;  for  she  is  a  careful  person, 
and  knows  the  value  of  small  things. 

She  began  to  teach  her  Science,  she  began  to 
heal,  she  began  to  gather  converts  to  her  new 
religion  —  fervent,  sincere,  devoted,  grateful 
people.  A  year  or  two  later  she  organized  her 
first  Christian  Science  "  Association, "  with  six 
of  her  disciples  on  the  roster. 

She  continued  to  teach  and  heal.  She  was 
charging  nothing,  she  says,  although  she  was 
very  poor.  She  taught  and  healed  gratis  four 
years  altogether,  she  says. 


154 

Then,  in  1879-81  she  was  become  strong 
enough,  and  well  enough  established,  to  vent 
ure  a  couple  of  impressively  important  moves. 
The  first  of  these  moves  was  to  aggrandize  the 
"Association"  to  a  "Church."  Brave?  It  is 
the  right  name  for  it,  I  think.  The  former 
name  suggests  nothing,  invited  no  remark,  no 
criticism,  no  inquiry,  no  hostility;  the  new 
name  invited  them  all.  She  must  have  made 
this  intrepid  venture  on  her  own  motion.  She 
could  have  had  no  important  advisers  at  that 
early  day.  If  we  accept  it  as  her  own  idea  and 
her  own  act — and  I  think  we  must — we  have 
one  key  to  her  character.  And  it  will  explain 
subsequent  acts  of  hers  that  would  merely  stun 
us  and  stupefy  us  without  it.  Shall  we  call  it 
courage?  Or  shall  we  call  it  recklessness? 
Courage  observes ;  reflects;  calculates;  surveys 
the  whole  situation;  counts  the  cost,  estimates 
the  odds,  makes  up  its  mind;  then  goes  at  the 
enterprise  resolute  to  win  or  perish.  Reck 
lessness  does  not  reflect,  it  plunges  fearlessly  in 
with  a  hurrah,  and  takes  the  risks,  whatever 
they  may  be,  regardless  of  expense.  Reckless 
ness  often  fails,  Mrs.  Eddy  has  never  failed — • 


155 

from  the  point  of  view  of  her  followers.  The 
point  of  view  of  other  people  is  naturally  not  a 
matter  of  weighty  importance  to  her. 

The  new  Church  was  not  born  loose-jointed 
and  featureless,  but  had  a  defined  plan,  a  def 
inite  character,  definite  aims,  and  a  name  which 
was  a  challenge,  and  defied  all  comers.  It 
was  "a  Mind-healing  Church."  It  was  "with 
out  a  creed."  Its  name,  "  The  Church  of  Christ, 
Scientist." 

Mrs.  Eddy  could  not  copyright  her  Church, 
but  she  chartered  it,  which  was  the  same  thing 
and  relieved  the  pain.  It  had  twenty-six  char 
ter  members.  Mrs.  Eddy  was  at  once  installed 
as  its  pastor. 

The  other  venture,  above  referred  to,  was 
Mrs.  Eddy's  Massachusetts  Metaphysical  Col 
lege,  in  which  was  taught  "the  pathology  of 
spiritual  power."  She  could  not  copyright  it, 
but  she  got  it  chartered.  For  faculty  it  had 
herself,  her  husband  of  the  period  (Dr.  Eddy), 
and  her  adopted  son,  Dr.  Foster-Eddy.  The 
college  term  was  "barely  three  weeks,"  she 
says.  Again  she  was  bold,  brave,  rash,  reckless 
— choose  for  yourself — for  she  not  only  began 


156 

to  charge  the  student,  but  charged  him  a  hun 
dred  dollars  a  week  for  the  enlightenments.  And 
got  it?  some  may  ask.  Easily.  Pupils  flocked 
from  far  and  near.  They  came  by  the  hundred. 
Presently  the  term  was  cut  down  nearly  half, 
but  the  price  remained  as  before.  To  be  exact, 
the  term-cut  was  to  seven  lessons- — price,  three 
hundred  dollars.  The  college  "  yielded  a  large 
income."  This  is  believable.  In  seven  years 
Mrs.  Eddy  taught,  as  she  avers,  over  four  thou 
sand  students  in  it.  (Preface  to  1902  edition  of 
Science  and  Health.)  Three  hundred  times  four 
thousand  is — but  perhaps  you  can  cipher  it 
yourself.  I  could  do  it  ordinarily,  but  I  fell 
down  yesterday  and  hurt  my  leg.  Cipher  it; 
you  will  see  that  it  is  a  grand  sum  for  a  woman 
to  earn  in  seven  years.  Yet  that  was  not  all 
she  got  out  of  her  college  in  the  seven. 

At  the  time  that  she  was  charging  the  pri 
mary  student  three  hundred  dollars  for  twelve 
lessons  she  was  not  content  with  this  tidy  as 
sessment,  but  had  other  ways  of  plundering 
him.  By  advertisement  she  offered  him  priv 
ileges  whereby  he  could  add  eighteen  lessons  to 
his  store  for  five  hundred  dollars  more.  That 


is  to  say,  he  could  get  a  total  of  thirty  lessons 
in  her  college  for  eight  hundred  dollars. 

Four  thousand  times  eight  hundred  is — but 
it  is  a  difficult  sum  for  a  cripple  who  has  not 
been  "demonstrated  over"  to  cipher;  let  it  go. 
She  taught  "over"  four  thousand  students  in 
seven  years.  "Over"  is  not  definite,  but  it 
probably  represents  a  non-paying  surplus  of 
learners  over  and  above  the  paying  four  thou 
sand.  Charity  students,  doubtless.  I  think 
that  as  interesting  an  advertisement  as  has 
been  printed  since  the  romantic  old  days  of  the 
other  buccaneers  is  this  one  from  the  Christian 
Science  Journal  for  September,  1886: 

"  MASSACHUSETTS    METAPHYSICAL 
COLLEGE 

"  REV.  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY,  PRESIDENT 

"571  Columbus  Avenue,  Boston 

"  The  collegiate  course  in  Christian  Science 
metaphysical  healing  includes  twelve  lessons. 
Tuition,  three  hundred  dollars. 

"  Course  in  metaphysical  obstetrics  includes 


six  daily  lectures,  and  is  open  only  to  students 
from  this  college.  Tuition,  one  hundred  dollars. 

"  Class  in  theology,  open  (like  the  above)  to 
graduates,  receives  six  additional  lectures  on 
the  Scriptures,  and  summary  of  the  principle 
and  practice  of  Christian  Science,  two  hundred 
dollars. 

"  Normal  class  is  open  to  those  who  have 
taken  the  first  course  at  this  college ;  six  daily 
lectures  complete  the  Normal  course.  Tuition, 
two  hundred  dollars. 

"  No  invalids,  and  only  persons  of  good  moral 
character,  are  accepted  as  students.  All  stu 
dents  are  subject  to  examination  and  rejection; 
and  they  are  liable  to  leave  the  class  if  found 
unfit  to  remain  in  it. 

"A  limited  number  of  clergymen  received 
free  of  charge. 

"  Largest  discount  to  indigent  students,  one 
hundred  dollars  on  the  first  course. 

"  No  deduction  on  the  others. 

"  Husband  and  wife,  entered  together,  three 
hundred  dollars. 

"Tuition  for  all  strictly  in  advance." 

There  it  is — the  horse-leech's  daughter  alive 
again,  after  a  three-century  vacation.  Fifty 


159 

or  sixty  hours'  lecturing  for  eight  hundred 
dollars. 

I  was  in  error  as  to  one  matter:  there  are 
no  charity  students.  Gratis-taught  clergymen 
must  not  be  placed  under  that  head;  they  are 
merely  an  advertisement.  Pauper  students  can 
get  into  the  infant  class  on  a  two  -  third  rate 
(cash  in  advance),  but  not  even  an  archangel 
can  get  into  the  rest  of  the  game  at  anything 
short  of  par,  cash  down.  For  it  is  "  in  the  spirit 
of  Christ's  charity,  as  one  who  is  joyful  to  bear 
healing  to  the  sick  "l  that  Mrs.  Eddy  is  working 
the  game.  She  sends  the  healing  to  them  out 
side. 

She  cannot  bear  it  to  them  inside  the  college, 
for  the  reason  that  she  does  not  allow  a  sick 
candidate  to  get  in.  It  is  true  that  this  smells 
of  inconsistency,2  but  that  is  nothing;  Mrs. 
Eddy  would  not  be  Mrs.  Eddy  if  she  should  ever 
chance  to  be  consistent  about  anything  two 
days  running. 

Except  in  the  matter  of  the  Dollar.     The 

1  Mrs.  Eddy's  Introduction  to  Science  and  Health. 

2  "There  is  no  disease";  " sickness  is  a  belief  only." — 
Science  and  Health,  vol.  ii.,  page  173,  edition  of  1884. — M.  T. 


i6o 


Dollar,  and  appetite  for  power  and  notoriety. 
English  must  also  be  added ;  she  is  always  con 
sistent,  she  is  always  Mrs.  Eddy,  in  her  English : 
it  is  always  and  consistently  confused  and  crip 
pled  and  poor.  She  wrote  the  Advertisement; 
her  literary  trade-marks  are  there.  When  she 
says  all  "  students  "  are  subject  to  examination, 
she  does  not  mean  students,  she  means  candi 
dates  for  that  lofty  place.  When  she  says  stu 
dents  are  "liable"  to  leave  the  class  if  found 
unfit  to  remain  in  it,  she  does  not  mean  that  if 
they  find  themselves  unfit,  or  be  found  unfit  by 
others,  they  will  be  likely  to  ask  permission  to 
leave  the  class ;  she  means  that  if  she  finds  them 
unfit  she  will  be  " liable"  to  fire  them  out. 
When  she  nobly  offers  "  tuition  for  all  strictly 
in  advance/'  she  does  not  mean  "instruction 
for  all  in  advance — payment  for  it  later."  No, 
that  is  only  what  she  says,  it  is  not  what  she 
means.  If  she  had  written  Science  and  Health, 
the  oldest  man  in  the  world  would  not  be  able 
to  tell  with  certainty  what  any  passage  in  it 
was  intended  to  mean. 


CHAPTER    VII 

HER  Church  was  on  its  legs. 

She  was  its  pastor.     It  was  prospering. 

She  was  appointed  one  of  a  committee  to 
draught  By-laws  for  its  government.  It  may 
be  observed,  without  overplus  of  irreverence, 
that  this  was  larks  for  her.  She  did  all  of  the 
draughting  herself.  From  the  very  beginning 
she  was  always  in  the  front  seat  when  there 
was  business  to  be  done ;  in  the  front  seat,  with 
both  eyes  open,  and  looking  sharply  out  for 
Number  One;  in  the  front  seat,  working  Mortal 
Mind  with  fine  effectiveness  and  giving  Immor 
tal  Mind  a  rest  for  Sunday.  When  her  Church 
was  reorganized,  by-and-by,  the  By-laws  were 
retained.  She  saw  to  that.  In  these  Laws  for 
the  government  of  her  Church,  her  empire,  her 
despotism,  Mrs.  Eddy's  character  is  embalmed 
for  good  and  all.  I  think  a  particularized  ex 
amination  of  these  Church-laws  will  be  found 
interesting.  And  not  the  less  so  if  we  keep  in 


162 


mind  that  they  were  "  impelled  by  a  power  not 
one's  own,"  as  she  says — Anglice.  the  inspira 
tion  of  God. 

It  is  a  Church  "  without  a  creed."  Still,  it 
has  one.  Mrs.  Eddy  draughted  it — and  copy 
righted  it.  In  her  own  name.  You  cannot  be 
come  a  member  of  the  Mother-Church  (nor  of 
any  Christian  Science  Church)  without  signing 
it.  It  forms  the  first  chapter  of  the  By-laws, 
and  is  called  "  Tenets/'  "  Tenets  of  The  Mother- 
Church,  The  First  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist." 
It  has  no  hell  in  it — it  throws  it  overboard. 

THE    PASTOR   EMERITUS 

About  the  time  of  the  reorganization,  Mrs. 
Eddy  retired  from  her  position  of  pastor  of  her 
Church,  abolished  the  office  of  pastor  in  all 
branch  Churches,  and  appointed  her  book,  Sci 
ence  and  Health,  to  be  pastor -universal.  Mrs. 
Eddy  did  not  disconnect  herself  from  the  office 
entirely,  when  she  retired,  but  appointed  her 
self  Pastor  Emeritus.  It  is  a  misleading  title, 
and  belongs  to  the  family  of  that  phrase  "  with 
out  a  creed."  It  advertises  her  as  being  a 


merely  honorary  official,  with  nothing  to  do, 
and  no  authority.  The  Czar  of  Russia  is  Em 
peror  Emeritus  on  the  same  terms.  Mrs.  Eddy 
was  Autocrat  of  the  Church  before,  with  limit 
less  authority,  and  she  kept  her  grip  on  that 
limitless  authority  when  she  took  that  fictitious 
title. 

It  is  curious  and  interesting  to  note  with  what 
an  unerring  instinct  the  Pastor  Emeritus  has 
thought  out  and  forecast  all  possible  encroach 
ments  upon  her  planned  autocracy,  and  barred 
the  way  against  them,  in  the  By-laws  which 
she  framed  and  copyrighted — under  the  guid 
ance  of  the  Supreme  Being. 

THE    BOARD    OF    DIRECTORS 

For  instance,  when  Article  I.  speaks  of  a 
President  and  Board  of  Directors,  you  think 
you  have  discovered  a  formidable  check  upon 
the  powers  and  ambitions  of  the  honorary  pas 
tor,  the  ornamental  pastor,  the  functionless  pas 
tor,  the  Pastor  Emeritus,  but  it  is  a  mistake. 
These  great  officials  are  of  the  phrase-family  of 
the  Church- Without-a- Creed  and  the  Pastor- 


164 

With-Nothing-to-Do ;  that  is  to  say,  of  the 
family  of  Large-Names- Which-Mean-Nothing. 
The  Board  is  of  so  little  consequence  that  the 
By-laws  do  not  state  how  it  is  chosen,  nor  who 
does  it;  but  they  do  state,  most  definitely,  that 
the  Board  cannot  fill  a  vacancy  in  its  number 
"  except  the  candidate  is  approved  by  the  Pastor 
Emeritus." 

The  ''candidate."  The  Board  cannot  even 
proceed  to  an  election  until  the  Pastor  Emeritus 
has  examined  the  list  and  squelched  such  can 
didates  as  are  not  satisfactory  to  her. 

Whether  the  original  first  Board  began  as  the 
personal  property  of  Mrs.  Eddy  or  not,  it  is 
foreseeable  that  in  time,  under  this  By-law, 
she  would  own  it.  Such  a  first  Board  might 
chafe  under  such  a  rule  as  that,  and  try  to 
legislate  it  out  of  existence  some  day.  But 
Mrs.  Eddy  was  awake.  She  foresaw  that  dan 
ger,  and  added  this  ingenious  and  effective 
clause: 

"  This  By  -  law  can  neither  be  amended  nor 
annulled,  except  by  consent  of  Mrs.  Eddy,  the 
Pastor  Emeritus" 


THE    PRESIDENT 

The  Board  of  Directors,  or  Serfs,  or  Ciphers, 
elects  the  President. 

On  these  clearly  worded  terms:  "Subject  to 
the  approval  of  the  Pastor  Emeritus." 

Therefore  She  elects  him. 

A  long  term  can  invest  a  high  official  with 
influence  and  power,  and  make  him  dangerous. 
Mrs.  Eddy  reflected  upon  that;  so  she  limits  the 
President's  term  to  a  year.  She  has  a  capable 
commerical  head,  an  organizing  head,  a  head 
for  government. 

TREASURER  AND   CLERK 

There  are  a  Treasurer  and  a  Clerk.  They  are 
elected  by  the  Board  of  Directors.  That  is  to 
say,  by  Mrs.  Eddy. 

Their  terms  of  office  expire  on  the  first  Tues 
day  in  June  of  each  year,  "or  upon  the  election 
of  their  successors."  They  must  be  watchfully 
obedient  and  satisfactory  to  her,  or  she  will 
elect  and  install  their  successors  with  a  sud 
denness  that  can  be  unpleasant  to  them.  It 


i66 


goes  without  saying  that  the  Treasurer  man 
ages  the  Treasury  to  suit  Mrs.  Eddy,  and  is  in 
fact  merely  Temporary  Deputy  Treasurer. 

Apparently  the  Clerk  has  but  two  duties  to 
perform:  to  read  messages  from  Mrs.  Eddy  to 
First  Members  assembled  in  solemn  Council, 
and  provide  lists  of  candidates  for  Church 
membership.  The  select  body  entitled  First 
Members  are  the  aristocracy  of  the  Mother- 
Church,  the  Charter  Members,  the  Aborigines, 
a  sort  of  stylish  but  unsalaried  little  College  of 
Cardinals,  good  for  show,  but  not  indispensable. 
Nobody  is  indispensable  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  empire ; 
she  sees  to  that. 

When  the  Pastor  Emeritus  sends  a  letter  or 
message  to  that  little  Sanhedrin,  it  is  the  Clerk's 
"  imperative  duty  "  to  read  it  "  at  the  place  and 
time  specified."  Otherwise,  the  world  might 
come  to  an  end.  These  are  fine,  large  frills,  and 
remind  us  of  the  ways  of  emperors  and  such. 
Such  do  not  use  the  penny -post,  they  send  a 
gilded  and  painted  special  messenger,  and  he 
strides  into  the  Parliament,  and  business  comes 
to  a  sudden  and  solemn  and  awful  stop;  and  in 
the  impressive  hush  that  follows,  thei  Chief 


Clerk  reads  the  document.  It  is  his  "  impera 
tive  duty."  If  he  should  neglect  it,  his  official 
life  would  end.  It  is  the  same  with  this  Mother- 
Church  Clerk;  "if  he  fail  to  perform  this  im 
portant  function  of  his  office,"  certain  majestic 
and  unshirkable  solemnities  must  follow:  a  spe 
cial  meeting  "  shall "  be  called;  a  member  of  the 
Church  "shall"  make  formal  complaint;  then 
the  Clerk  "shall"  be  "removed  from  office." 
Complaint  is  sufficient,  no  trial  is  necessary. 

There  is  something  very  sweet  and  juvenile 
and  innocent  and  pretty  about  these  little  tin 
sel  vanities,  these  grave  apings  of  monarchical 
fuss  and  feathers  and  ceremony,  here  on  our 
ostentatiously  democratic  soil.  She  is  the 
same  lady  that  we  found  in  the  Autobiography, 
who  was  so  naively  vain  of  all  that  little  ances 
tral  military  riffraff  that  she  had  dug  up  and 
annexed.  A  person's  nature  never  changes. 
What  it  is  in  childhood,  it  remains.  Under 
pressure,  or  a  change  of  interest,  it  can  partially 
or  wholly  disappear  from  sight,  and  for  con 
siderable  stretches  of  time,  but  nothing  can 
ever  permanently  modify  it,  nothing  can  ever 
remove  it. 


1 68 
BOARD    OF    TRUSTEES 

There  isn't  any — now.  But  with  power  and 
money  piling  up  higher  and  higher  every  day 
and  the  Church's  dominion  spreading  daily 
wider  and  farther,  a  time  could  come  when  the 
envious  and  ambitious  could  start  the  idea  that 
it  would  be  wise  and  well  to  put  a  watch  upon 
these  assets — a  watch  equipped  with  properly 
large  authority.  By  custom,  a  Board  of  Trus 
tees.  Mrs.  Eddy  has  foreseen  that  probability 
— for  she  is  a  woman  with  a  long,  long  look 
ahead,  the  longest  look  ahead  that  ever  a  wom 
an  had — and  she  has  provided  for  that  emer 
gency.  In  Art.  I.,  Sec.  5,  she  has  decreed  that 
no  Board  of  Trustees  shall  ever  exist  in  the 
Mother-Church  "except  it  be  constituted  by  the 
Pastor  Emeritus." 

The  magnificence  of  it,  the  daring  of  it!  Thus 
far,  she  is 

The  Massachusetts  Metaphysical  College; 

Pastor  Emeritus; 

President ; 

Board  of  Directors; 

Treasurer ; 


169 

Clerk;  and  future 

Board  of  Trustees ; 

and  is  still  moving  onward,  ever  onward.  When 
I  contemplate  her  from  a  commercial  point  of 
view,  there  are  no  words  that  can  convey  my 
admiration  of  her. 

READERS 

These  are  a  feature  of  first  importance  in  the 
church-machinery  of  Christian  Science.  For 
they  occupy  the  pulpit.  They  hold  the  place 
that  the  preacher  holds  in  the  other  Christian 
Churches.  They  hold  that  place,  but  they  do 
not  preach.  Two  of  them  are  on  duty  at  a  time 
—a  man  and  a  woman.  One  reads  a  passage 
from  the  Bible,  the  other  reads  the  explanation 
of  it  from  Science  and  Health — and  so  they  go 
on  alternating.  This  constitutes  the  service — 
this,  with  choir-music.  They  utter  no  word  of 
their  own.  Art.  IV.,  Sec.  6,  closes  their  mouths 
with  this  uncompromising  gag: 

"  They  shall  make  no  remarks  explanatory  of 
the  Lesson-Sermon  at  any  time  during  the  ser 


vice." 


170 

It  seems  a  simple  little  thing.  One  is  not 
startled  by  it  at  a  first  reading  of  it ;  nor  at  the 
second,  nor  the  third.  One  may  have  to  read 
it  a  dozen  times  before  the  whole  magnitude  of 
it  rises  before  the  mind.  It  far  and  away  over- 
sizes  and  outclasses  the  best  business-idea  yet 
invented  for  the  safe-guarding  and  perpetuat 
ing  of  a  religion.  If  it  had  been  thought  of 
and  put  in  force  eighteen  hundred  and  seventy 
years  ago,  there  would  be  but  one  Christian 
sect  in  the  world  now,  instead  of  ten  dozens 
of  them. 

There  are  many  varieties  of  men  in  the  world, 
consequently  there  are  many  varieties  of  minds 
in  its  pulpits.  This  insures1  many  differing  in 
terpretations  of  important  Scripture  texts,  and 
this  in  turn  insures  the  splitting  up  of  a  religion 
into  many  sects.  It  is  what  has  happened;  it 
was  sure  to  happen. 

Mrs.  Eddy  has  noted  this  disastrous  result 
of  preaching,  and  has  put  up  the  bars.  She 
will  have  no  preaching  in  her  Church.  She  has 
explained  all  essential  Scriptures,  and  set  the 
explanations  down  in  her  book.  In  her  belief 
her  underlings  cannot  improve  upon  those  ex- 


planations,  and  in  that  stern  sentence  "  they 
shall  make  no  explanatory  remarks"  she  has 
barred  them  for  all  time  from  trying.  She 
will  be  obeyed;  there  is  no  question  about 
that. 

In  arranging  her  government  she  has  bor 
rowed  ideas  from  various  sources — not  poor 
ones,  but  the  best  in  the  governmental  market 
— but  this  one  is  new,  this  one  came  out  of  no 
ordinary  business -head,  this  one  must  have 
come  out  of  her  own,  there  has  been  no  other 
commercial  skull  in  a  thousand  centuries  that 
was  equal  to  it.  She  has  borrowed  freely  and 
wisely,  but  I  am  sure  that  this  idea  is  many 
times  larger  than  all  her  borrowings  bulked  to 
gether.  One  must  respect  the  business-brain 
that  produced  it — the  splendid  pluck  and  im 
pudence  that  ventured  to  promulgate  it,  any 
way. 

ELECTION    OP    READERS 

Readers  are  not  taken  at  hap-hazard,  any 
more  than  preachers  are  taken  at  hap-hazard 
for  the  pulpits  of  other  sects.  No,  Readers 
are  elected  by  the  Board  of  Directors.  But — 


'7* 

"Section  3.  The  Board  shall  inform  the  Pas 
tor  Emeritus  of  the  names  of  candidates  for 
Readers  before  they  are  elected,  and  if  she  ob 
jects  to  the  nomination,  said  candidates  shall  not 
be  chosen." 

Is  that  an  election — by  the  Board?  Thus  far 
I  have  not  been  able  to  find  out  what  that 
Board  of  Spectres  is  for.  It  certainly  has  no 
real  function,  no  duty  which  the  hired  girl  could 
not  perform,  no  office  beyond  the  mere  record 
ing  of  the  autocrat's  decrees. 

There  are  no  dangerously  long  office-terms 
in  Mrs.  Eddy's  government.  The  Readers  are 
elected  for  but  one  year.  This  insures  their 
subserviency  to  their  proprietor. 

Readers  are  not  allowed  to  copy  out  passages 
and  read  them  from  the  manuscript  in  the  pul 
pit  ;  they  must  read  from  Mrs.  Eddy's  book  itself. 
She  is  right.  Slight  changes  could  be  slyly 
made,  repeated,  and  in  time  get  acceptance 
with  congregations.  Branch  sects  could  grow 
out  of  these  practices.  Mrs.  Eddy  knows  the 
human  race,  and  how  far  to  trust  it.  Her  limit 
is  not  over  a  quarter  of  an  inch.  It  is  all  that 
a  wise  person  will  risk. 


173 

Mrs.  Eddy's  inborn  disposition  to  copyright 
everything,  charter  everything,  secure  the 
rightful  and  proper  credit  to  herself  for  every 
thing  she  does,  and  everything  she  thinks  she 
does,  and  everything  she  thinks,  and  every 
thing  she  thinks  she  thinks  or  has  thought  or 
intends  to  think,  is  illustrated  in  Sec.  5  of 
Art.  IV.,  defining  the  duties  of  official  Readers 
— in  church: 

"  Naming  Book  and  Author.  The  Reader  of 
Science  and  Health,  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures, 
before  commencing  to  read  from  this  book, 
shall  distinctly  announce  its  full  title  and  give  the 
author's  name." 

Otherwise  the  congregation  might  get  the 
habit  of  forgetting  who  (ostensibly)  wrote  the 
book. 

THE   ARISTOCRACY 

This  consists  of  First  Members  and  their 
apostolic  succession.  It  is  a  close  corporation, 
and  its  membership  limit  is  one  hundred.  Forty 
will  answer,  but  if  the  number  fall  below  that, 


174 

there  must  be  an  election,  to  fill  the  grand 
quorum. 

This  Sanhedrin  can't  do  anything  of  the 
slightest  importance,  but  it  can  talk.  It  can 
" discuss."  That  is,  it  can  discuss  "impor 
tant  questions  relative  to  Church  members"; 
evidently  persons  who  are  already  Church 
members.  This  affords  it  amusement,  and 
does  no  harm. 

It  can  "fix  the  salaries  of  the  Readers." 
Twice  a  year  it  "  votes  on  "  admitting  candi 
dates.     That  is,  for  Church  membership.     But 
its  work  is  cut  out  for  it  beforehand,  by  Sec. 
2,  Art.  IX.: 

"  Every  recommendation  for  membership  in 
the  Church  '  shall  be  countersigned  by  a  loyal 
student  of  Mrs.  Eddy's,  by  a  Director  of  this 
Church,  or  by  a  First  Member/  ' 

All  these  three  classes  of  beings  are  the  per 
sonal  property  of  Mrs.  Eddy.  She  has  abso 
lute  control  of  the  elections. 

Also  it  must  "  transact  any  Church  business 
that  may  properly  come  before  it." 

"Properly"  is  a  thoughtful  word.     No  im- 


175 

portant  business  can  come  before  it.  The  By 
laws  have  attended  to  that.  No  important 
business  goes  before  any  one  for  the  final  word 
except  Mrs.  Eddy.  She  has  looked  to  that. 

The  Sanhedrin  "votes  on  "  candidates  for  ad 
mission  to  its  own  body.  But  is  its  vote  worth 
any  more  than  mine  would  be?  No,  it  isn't. 
Sec.  4,  of  Art.  V. — Election  of  First  Members 
— makes  this  quite  plain: 

"  Before  being  elected,  the  candidates  for 
First  Members  shall  be  approved  by  the  Pastor 
Emeritus  over  her  own  signature" 

Thus  the  Sanhedrin  is  the  personal  property 
of  Mrs.  Eddy.  She  owns  it.  It  has  no  func 
tions,  no  authority,  no  real  existence.  It  is 
another  Board  of  Shadows.  Mrs.  Eddy  is  the 
Sanhedrin  herself. 

But  it  is  time  to  foot  up  again  and  "  see  where 
we  are  at."  Thus  far,  Mrs.  Eddy  is 

The  Massachusetts  Metaphysical  College; 

Pastor  Emeritus; 

President; 

Board  of  Directors; 


176 

Treasurer; 

Clerk; 

Future  Board  of  Trustees; 

Proprietor  of  the  Priesthood; 

Dictator  of  the  Services; 

Proprietor  of  the  Sanhedrin. 

She  has  come  far,  and  is  still  on  her  way. 

CHURCH    MEMBERSHIP 

In  this  Article  there  is  another  exhibition  of 
a  couple  of  the  large  features  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
remarkable  make-up:  her  business-talent  and 
her  knowledge  of  human  nature. 

She  does  not  beseech  and  implore  people  to 
join  her  Church.  She  knows  the  human  race 
better  than  that.  She  gravely  goes  through 
the  motions  of  reluctantly  granting  admission 
to  the  applicant  as  a  favor  to  him.  The  idea 
is  worth  untold  shekels.  She  does  not  stand 
at  the  gate  of  the  fold  with  welcoming  arms 
spread,  and  receive  the  lost  sheep  with  glad 
emotion  and  set  up  the  fatted  calf  and  invite 
the  neighbor  and  have  a  time.  No,  she  looks 
upon  him  coldly,  she  snubs  him,  she  says: 


177 

"  Who  are  you?  Who  is  your  sponsor?  Who 
asked  you  to  come  here?  Go  away,  and  don't 
come  again  until  you  are  invited." 

It  is  calculated  to  strikingly  impress  a  per 
son  accustomed  to  Moody  and  Sankey  and  Sam 
Jones  revivals;  accustomed  to  brain-turning 
appeals  to  the  unknown  and  unendorsed  sinner 
to  come  forward  and  enter  into  the  joy,  etc. — 
"just  as  he  is";  accustomed  to  seeing  him  do 
it;  accustomed  to  seeing  him  pass  up  the  aisle 
through  sobbing  seas  of  welcome,  and  love,  and 
congratulation,  and  arrive  at  the  mourner's 
bench  and  be  received  like  a  long-lost  govern 
ment  bond. 

No,  there  is  nothing  of  that  kind  in  Mrs. 
Eddy's  system.  She  knows  that  if  you  wish  to 
confer  upon  a  human  being  something  which 
he  is  not  sure  he  wants,  the  best  way  is  to  make 
it  apparently  difficult  for  him  to  get  it — then 
he  is  no  son  of  Adam  if  that  apple  does  not  as 
sume  an  interest  in  his  eyes  which  it  lacked  be 
fore.  In  time  this  interest  can  grow  into  de 
sire.  Mrs.  Eddy  knows  that  when  you  cannot 
get  a  man  to  try — free  of  cost — a  new  and  effec 
tive  remedy  for  a  disease  he  is  afflicted  with, 


you  can  generally  sell  it  to  him  if  you  will  put  a 
price  upon  it  which  he  cannot  afford.1  When, 
in  the  beginning,  she  taught  Christian  Science 
gratis  (for  good  reasons),  pupils  were  few  and 
reluctant,  and  required  persuasion ;  it  was  when 
she  raised  the  limit  to  three  hundred  dollars  for 
a  dollar's  worth  that  she  could  not  find  standing 
room  for  the  invasion  of  pupils  that  followed. 

With  fine  astuteness  she  goes  through  the 
motions  of  making  it  difficult  to  get  member 
ship  in  her  Church.  There  is  a  twofold  value 
in  this  system :  it  gives  membership  a  high  value 
in  the  eyes  of  the  applicant;  and  at  the  same 
time  the  requirements  exacted  enable  Mrs. 
Eddy  to  keep  him  out  if  she  has  doubts  about 


1 1  offered  to  cure  of  his  passion — gratis — a  victim  of  the 
drinking  habit,  by  a  simple  and  (as  it  seemed  to  me)  not 
difficult  intellectual  method  which  I  had  successfully  tried 
upon  the  tobacco  habit.  I  failed  to  get  him  interested. 
I  think  my  proposition  couldn't  rouse  him,  couldn't 
strongly  appeal  to  him,  could  not  electrify  him,  because  it 
offered  a  thing  so  easy  to  get,  and  which  could  be  had  for 
nothing.  Within  a  month  afterwards  a  famous  Drink- 
Cure  opened,  and  at  my  suggestion  he  willingly  went  there, 
at  once,  and  got  himself  (temporarily)  cured  of  his  habit. 
Because  he  had  to  pay  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars. 
One  values  a  thing  when  one  can't  afford  it. — M.  T. 


his  value  to  her.     A  word  further  as  to  appli 
cations  for  membership: 

"  Applications  of  students  of  the  Metaphys 
ical  College  must  be  signed  by  the  Board  of 
Directors." 

That  is  safe.  Mrs.  Eddy  is  proprietor  of  that 
Board. 

Children  of  twelve  may  be  admitted  if  in 
vited  by  "  one  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  loyal  students, 
or  by  a  First  Member,  or  by  a  Director." 

These  sponsors  are  the  property  of  Mrs. 
Eddy,  therefore  her  Church  is  safeguarded 
from  the  intrusion  of  undesirable  children. 

Other  Students.  Applicants  who  have  not 
studied  with  Mrs.  Eddy  can  get  in  only  "by 
invitation  and  recommendation  from  students 
of  Mrs.  Eddy  ...  or  from  members  of  the 
Mother-Church." 

Other  paragraphs  explain  how  two  or  three 
other  varieties  of  applicants  are  to  be  chal 
lenged  and  obstructed,  and  tell  us  who  is  au 
thorized  to  invite  them,  recommend  them, 
endorse  them,  and  all  that. 


i8o 


The  safeguards  are  definite,  and  would  seem 
to  be  sufficiently  strenuous — to  Mr.  Sam  Jones, 
at  any  rate.  Not  for  Mrs.  Eddy.  She  adds 
this  clincher: 

"  The  candidates  shall  be  elected  by  a  majority 
vote  of  the  First  Members  present." 

That  is  the  aristocracy,  the  aborigines,  the 
Sanhedrin.  It  is  Mrs.  Eddy's  property.  She 
herself  is  the  Sanhedrin.  No  one  can  get 
into  the  Church  if  she  wishes  to  keep  him 
out. 

This  veto  power  could  some  time  or  other 
have  a  large  value  for  her,  therefore  she  was 
wise  to  reserve  it. 

It  is  likely  that  it  is  not  frequently  used.  It 
is  also  probable  that  the  difficulties  attendant 
upon  getting  admission  to  membership  have 
been  instituted  more  to  invite  than  to  deter, 
more  to  enhance  the  value  of  membership  and 
make  people  long  for  it  than  to  make  it  really 
difficult  to  get.  I  think  so,  because  the  Mother- 
Church  has  many  thousands  of  members  more 
than  its  building  can  accommodate. 


'ANDSOME  ENGLISH  REQUIRED 

Mrs.  Eddy  is  very  particular  as  regards  one 
detail — curiously  so,  for  her,  all  things  con 
sidered.  The  Church  Readers  must  be  "good 
English  scholars";  they  must  be  "thorough 
English  scholars." 

She  is  thus  sensitive  about  the  English  of  her 
subordinates  for  cause,  possibly.  In  her  chap 
ter  defining  the  duties  of  the  Clerk  there  is  an 
indication  that  she  harbors  resentful  memories 
of  an  occasion  when  the  hazy  quality  of  her 
own  English  made  unforeseen  and  mortifying 
trouble: 

"  Understanding  Communications.  Sec.  2.  If 
the  Clerk  of  this  Church  shall  receive  a  com 
munication  from  the  Pastor  Emeritus  which  he 
does  not  fully  understand,  he  shall  inform  her 
of  this  fact  before  presenting  it  to  the  Church, 
and  obtain  a  clear  understanding  of  the  matter 
— then  act  in  accordance  therewith." 

She  should  have  waited  to  calm  down,  then, 
but  instead  she  added  this,  which  lacks  sugar: 


182 


"  Failing  to  adhere  to  this  By-law,  the  Clerk 
must  resign.'1 

I  wish  I  could  see  that  communication  that 
broke  the  camel's  back.  It  was  probably  the 
one  beginning:  "What  plague  spot  or  bacilli 
were  gnawing  at  the  heart  of  this  metropolis 
and  bringing  it  on  bended  knee?"  and  I  think 
it  likely  that  the  kindly  disposed  Clerk  tried 
to  translate  it  into  English  and  lost  his  mind 
and  had  to  go  to  the  hospital.  That  By 
law  was  not  the  offspring  of  a  forecast,  an 
intuition,  it  was  certainly  born  of  a  sorrow 
ful  experience.  Its  temper  gives  the  fact 
away. 

The  little  book  of  By-laws  has  manifestly 
been  tinkered  by  one  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  "  thorough 
English  scholars,"  for  in  the  majority  of  cases 
its  meanings  are  clear.  The  book  is  not  even 
marred  by  Mrs.  Eddy's  peculiar  specialty — 
lumbering  clumsinesses  of  speech.  I  believe 
the  salaried  polisher  has  weeded  them  all 
out  but  one.  In  one  place,  after  referring 
to  Science  and  Health,  Mrs.  Eddy  goes  on 
to  say  "the  Bible  and  the  above-named 


book,  with  other  works  by  the  same  author," 
etc. 

It  is  an  unfortunate  sentence,  for  it  could 
mislead  a  hasty  or  careless  reader  for  a  mo 
ment.  Mrs.  Eddy  framed  it — it  is  her  very 
own — it  bears  her  trade-mark.  'The  Bible 
and  Science  and  Health,  with  other  works  by  the 
same  author,"  could  have  come  from  no  liter 
ary  vacuum  but  the  one  which  produced  the 
remark  (in  the  Autobiography) :  "  I  remember 
reading,  in  my  childhood,  certain  manuscripts 
containing  Scriptural  Sonnets,  besides  other 
verses  and  enigmas." 

We  know  what  she  means,  in  both  instances, 
but  a  low-priced  Clerk  would  not  necessarily 
know,  and  on  a  salary  like  his  he  could  quite 
excusably  aver  that  the  Pastor  Emeritus  had 
commanded  him  to  come  and  make  proclama 
tion  that  she  was  author  of  the  Bible,  and  that 
she  was  thinking  of  discharging  some  Scriptural 
sonnets  and  other  enigmas  upon  the  congrega 
tion.  It  could  lose  him  his  place,  but  it  would 
not  be  fair,  if  it  happened  before  the  edict  about 
"  Understanding  Communications "  was  pro 
mulgated. 


i84 


"READERS"  AGAIN 


The  By-law  book  makes  a  showy  pretence 
of  orderliness  and  system,  but  it  is  only  a  pre 
tence.  I  will  not  go  so  far  as  to  say  it  is  a 
harum-scarum  jumble,  for  it  is  not  that,  but  I 
think  it  fair  to  say  it  is  at  least  jumbulacious  in 
places.  For  instance,  Articles  III.  and  IV.  set 
forth  in  much  detail  the  qualifications  and  duties 
of  Readers,  she  then  skips  some  thirty  pages  and 
takes  up  the  subject  again.  It  looks  like  slov 
enliness,  but  it  may  be  only  art.  The  belated 
By-law  has  a  sufficiently  quiet  look,  but  it  has 
a  ton  of  dynamite  in  it.  It  makes  all  the  Chris 
tian  Science  Church  Readers  on  the  globe  the 
personal  chattels  of  Mrs.  Eddy.  Whenever  she 
chooses,  she  can  stretch  her  long  arm  around 
the  world's  fat  belly  and  flirt  a  Reader  out  of 
his  pulpit,  though  he  be  tucked  away  in  seeming 
safety  and  obscurity  in  a  lost  village  in  the  mid 
dle  of  China: 

"  In  any  Church.  Sec.  2.  The  Pastor  Emer 
itus  of  the  Mother-Church  shall  have  the  right 
(through  a  letter  addressed  to  the  individual 


and  Church  of  which  he  is  the  Reader)  to  re 
move  a  Reader  from  this  office  in  any  Church 
of  Christ,  Scientist,  both  in  America  and  in  for 
eign  nations;  or  to  appoint  the  Reader  to  fill 
any  office  belonging  to  the  Christian  Science 
denomination. ' ' 

She  does  not  have  to  prefer  charges  against 
him,  she  does  not  have  to  find  him  lazy,  care 
less,  incompetent,  untidy,  ill-mannered,  unholy, 
dishonest,  she  does  not  have  to  discover  a  fault 
of  any  kind  in  him,  she  does  not  have  to  tell 
him  nor  his  congregation  why  she  dismisses  and 
disgraces  him  and  insults  his  meek  flock,  she 
does  not  have  to  explain  to  his  family  why  she 
takes  the  bread  out  of  their  mouths  and  turns 
them  out-of-doors  homeless  and  ashamed  in  a 
strange  land;  she  does  not  have  to  do  anything 
but  send  a  letter  and  say :  "  Pack ! — and  ask  no 
questions!" 

Has  the  Pope  this  power? — the  other  Pope — 
the  one  in  Rome.  Has  he  anything  approach 
ing  it?  Can  he  turn  a  priest  out  of  his  pulpit 
and  strip  him  of  his  office  and  his  livelihood 
just  upon  a  whim,  a  caprice,  and  meanwhile 
furnishing  no  reasons  to  the  parish?  Not  in 


i86 

America.  And  not  elsewhere,  we  may  be 
lieve. 

It  is  odd  and  strange,  to  see  intelligent  and 
educated  people  among  us  worshipping  this  self- 
seeking  and  remorseless  tyrant  as  a  God.  This 
worship  is  denied — by  persons  who  are  them 
selves  worshippers  of  Mrs.  Eddy.  I  feel  quite 
sure  that  it  is  a  worship  which  will  continue 
during  ages. 

That  Mrs.  Eddy  wrote  that  amazing  By-law 
with  her  own  hand  we  have  much  better  evi 
dence  than  her  word.  We  have  her  English. 
It  is  there.  It  cannot  be  imitated.  She  ought 
never  to  go  to  the  expense  of  copyrighting  her 
verbal  discharges.  When  any  one  tries  to 
claim  them  she  should  call  me;  I  can  always 
tell  them  from  any  other  literary  apprentice's 
at  a  glance.  It  was  like  her  to  call  America  a 
"  nation  " ;  she  would  call  a  sand-bar  a  nation  if 
it  should  fall  into  a  sentence  in  which  she  was 
speaking  of  peoples,  for  she  would  not  know 
how  to  untangle  it  and  get  it  out  and  classify  it 
by  itself.  And  the  closing  arrangement  of  that 
By-law  is  in  true  Eddysonian  form,  too.  In 
it  she  reserves  authority  to  make  a  Reader  fill 


any  office  connected  with  a  Science  church — 
sexton,  grave-digger,  advertising-agent,  Annex- 
polisher,  leader  of  the  choir,  President,  Direc 
tor,  Treasurer,  Clerk,  etc.  She  did  not  mean 
that.  She  already  possessed  that  authority. 
She  meant  to  clothe  herself  with  power,  despotic 
and  unchallengeable,  to  appoint  all  Science 
Readers  to  their  offices,  both  at  home  and 
abroad.  The  phrase  "  or  to  appoint "  is  another 
miscarriage  of  intention;  she  did  not  mean 
"or,"  she  meant  "and." 

That  By-law  puts  into  Mrs.  Eddy's  hands  ab 
solute  command  over  the  most  formidable  force 
and  influence  existent  in  the  Christian  Science 
kingdom  outside  of  herself,  and  it  does  this  un 
conditionally  and  (by  auxiliary  force  of  Laws 
already  quoted)  irrevocably.  Still,  she  is  not 
quite  satisfied.  Something  might  happen,  she 
doesn't  know  what.  Therefore  she  drives  in 
one  more  nail,  to  make  sure,  and  drives  it 
deep: 

"This  By-law  can  neither  be  amended  nor 
annulled,  except  by  consent  of  the  Pastor  Emer 
itus." 

13 


i88 

Let  some  one  with  a  wild  and  delirious  fancy 
try  and  see  if  he  can  imagine  her  furnishing 
that  consent. 

MONOPOLY    OF    SPIRITUAL   BREAD 

Very  properly,  the  first  qualification  for  mem 
bership  in  the  Mother-Church  is  belief  in  the 
doctrines  of  Christian  Science. 

But  these  doctrines  must  not  be  gathered 
from  secondary  sources.  There  is  but  one 
recognized  source.  The  candidate  must  be  a 
believer  in  the  doctrines  of  Christian  Science 
"according  to  the  platform  and  teaching  con 
tained  in  the  Christian  Science  text-book,  *  Science 
and  Health,  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures,'  by  Rev. 
Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy." 

That  is  definite,  and  is  final.  There  are  to 
be  no  commentaries,  no  labored  volumes  of 
exposition  and  explanation  by  anybody  except 
Mrs.  Eddy.  Because  such  things  could  sow 
error,  create  warring  opinions,  split  the  religion 
into  sects,  and  disastrously  cripple  its  power. 
Mrs.  Eddy  will  do  the  whole  of  the  explaining, 
herself — has  done  it,  in  fact.  She  has  written 


189 

several  books.  They  are  to  be  had  (for  cash 
in  advance);  they  are  all  sacred;  additions  to 
them  can  never  be  needed  and  will  never  be 
permitted.  They  tell  the  candidate  how  to  in 
struct  himself ,  how  to  teach  others,  how  to  do 
all  things  comprised  in  the  business — and  they 
close  the  door  against  all  would-be  competitors, 
and  monopolize  the  trade: 

"The  Bible  and  the  above-named  book 
[Science  and  Health],  with  other  works  by  the 
same  author/'  must  be  his  only  text-books  for 
the  commerce — he  cannot  forage  outside. 

Mrs.  Eddy's  words  are  to  be  the  sole  elucida- 
tors  of  the  Bible  and  Science  and  Health — for 
ever.  Throughout  the  ages,  whenever  there  is 
doubt  as  to  the  meaning  of  a  passage  in  either 
of  these  books  the  inquirer  will  not  dream  of 
trying  to  explain  it  to  himself;  he  would  shud 
der  at  the  thought  of  such  temerity,  such  pro 
fanity;  he  would  be  haled  to  the  Inquisition 
and  thence  to  the  public  square  and  the  stake 
if  he  should  be  caught  studying  into  text-mean 
ings  on  his  own  hook;  he  will  be  prudent  and 
seek  the  meanings  at  the  only  permitted  source, 
Mrs.  Eddy's  commentaries. 


IpQ 

Value  of  this  Strait-jacket.  One  must  not  un 
derrate  the  magnificence  of  this  long-headed 
idea,  one  must  not  underestimate  its  giant  pos 
sibilities  in  the  matter  of  hooping  the  Church 
solidly  together  and  keeping  it  so.  It  squelches 
independent  inquiry,  and  makes  such  a  thing 
impossible,  profane,  criminal,  it  authoritatively 
settles  every  dispute  that  can  arise.  It  starts 
with  finality — a  point  which  the  Roman  Church 
has  travelled  towards  fifteen  or  sixteen  cen 
turies,  stage  by  stage,  and  has  not  yet  reached. 
The  matter  of  the  Immaculate  Conception  of 
the  Virgin  Mary  was  not  authoritatively  set 
tled  until  the  days  of  Pius  IX. — yesterday,  so 
to  speak. 

As  already  noticed,  the  Protestants  are  bro 
ken  up  into  a  long  array  of  sects,  a  result  of 
disputes  about  the  meanings  of  texts,  disputes 
made  unavoidable  by  the  absence  of  an  infalli 
ble  authority  to  submit  doubtful  passages  to. 
A  week  or  two  ago  (I  am  writing  in  the  middle 
of  January,  1903),  the  clergy  and  others  here 
abouts  had  a  warm  dispute  in  the  papers  over 
this  question:  Did  Jesus  anywhere  claim  to 
be  God?  It  seemed  an  easy  question,  but  it 


turned  out  to  be  a  hard  one.  It  was  ably  and 
elaborately  discussed,  by  learned  men  of  several 
denominations,  but  in  the  end  it  remained  un 
settled. 

A  week  ago,  another  discussion  broke  out. 
It  was  over  this  text: 

"  Sell  all  that  thou  hast  and  distribute  unto 
the  poor." 

One  verdict  was  worded  as  follows: 

"  When  Christ  answered  the  rich  young  man 
and  said  for  him  to  give  to  the  poor  all  he 
possessed  or  he  could  not  gain  everlasting 
life,  He  did  not  mean  it  in  the  literal  sense. 
My  interpretation  of  His  words  is  that  we 
should  part  with  what  comes  between  us  and 
Christ. 

"  There  is  no  doubt  that  Jesus  believed  that 
the  rich  young  man  thought  more  of  his  wealth 
than  he  did  of  his  soul,  and,  such  being  the  case, 
it  was  his  duty  to  give  up  the  wealth. 

"  Every  one  of  us  knows  that  there  is  some 
thing  we  should  give  up  for  Christ.  Those  who 
are  true  believers  and  followers  know  what  they 
have  given  up,  and  those  who  are  not  yet  fol- 


lowers  know  down  in  their  hearts  what  they 
must  give  up." 

Ten  clergymen  of  various  denominations  were 
interviewed,  and  nine  of  them  agreed  with  that 
verdict.  That  did  not  settle  the  matter,  be 
cause  the  tenth  said  the  language  of  Jesus  was 
so  strait  and  definite  that  it  explained  itself: 
"Sell  a///'  not  a  percentage. 

There  is  a  most  unusual  feature  about  that 
dispute:  the  nine  persons  who  decided  alike, 
quoted  not  a  single  authority  in  support  of  their 
position.  I  do  not  know  when  I  have  seen 
trained  disputants  do  the  like  of  that  before. 
The  nine  merely  furnished  their  own  opinions, 
founded  upon — nothing  at  all.  In  the  other 
dispute  ("Did  Jesus  anywhere  claim  to  be 
God?")  the  same  kind  of  men — trained  and 
learned  clergymen  —  backed  up  their  argu 
ments  with  chapter  and  verse.  On  both  sides. 
Plenty  of  verses.  Were  no  reinforcing  verses 
to  be  found  in  the  present  case?  It  looks  that 
way. 

The  opinion  of  the  nine  seems  strange  to  me, 
for  it  is  unsupported  by  authority,  while  there 


193 

was  at  least  constructive  authority  for  the  op 
posite  view. 

It  is  hair-splitting  differences  of  opinion  over 
disputed  text-meanings  that  have  divided  into 
many  sects  a  once  united  Church.  One  may 
infer  from  some  of  the  names  in  the  following 
list  that  some  of  the  differences  are  very  slight 
— so  slight  as  to  be  not  distinctly  important, 
perhaps — yet  they  have  moved  groups  to  with 
draw  from  communions  to  which  they  belonged 
and  set  up  a  sect  of  their  own.  The  list — ac 
companied  by  various  Church  statistics  for 
1902,  compiled  by  Rev.  Dr.  H.  K.  Carroll — was 
published,  January  8,  1903,  in  the  New  York 
Christian  Advocate: 

Adventists    (6    bod-  Christadelphians, 

ies),  Christian  Connection, 

Baptists  (13  bodies),  Christian       Catholics 
Brethren  (Plymouth)          (Dowie), 

(4  bodies),  Christian  Missionary 
Brethren  (River)  (3  Association, 

bodies),  Christian  Scientists, 

Catholics  (8  bodies),  Church  of  God  (Wine- 
Catholic  Apostolic,  brennarian), 


194 


Church  of   the    New 

Jerusalem, 
Congregationalists , 
Disciples  of  Christ, 
Dunkards  (4  bodies), 
Evangelical  (2  bodies), 
Friends  (4  bodies), 
Friends  of  the  Temple, 
German    Evangelical 

Protestant, 
German    Evangelical 

Synod, 

Independent    congre 
gations. 

Jews  (2  bodies), 
Latter-day  Saints    (2 

bodies), 

Lutherans    (22    bod 
ies), 

Total  of  sects 


Mennonites  (12  bod 
ies), 

Methodists  (i  7  bodies) , 

Moravians, 

Presbyterians(i  2  bod 
ies), 

Protestant  Episcopal 
(2  bodies), 

Reformed  (3  bodies), 

Schwenkfeldians, 

Social  Brethren, 

Spiritualists, 

Swedish  Evangelical 
Miss.  Covenant 
(Waldenstromians) , 

Unitarians, 

United  Brethren  (2 
bodies) , 

Universalists, 
and  splits — 139. 


In  the  present  month  (February),  Mr.  E.  I. 
Lindh,  A.M.,  has  communicated  to  the  Boston 
Transcript  a  hopeful  article  on  the  solution  of 
the  problem  of  the  "  divided  church. ' '  Divided 


195 

is  not  too  violent  a  term.  Subdivided  could 
have  been  permitted  if  he  had  thought  of  it. 
He  came  near  thinking  of  it,  for  he  mentions 
some  of  the  subdivisions  himself:  "  the  12  kinds 
of  Presbyterians,  the  17  kinds  of  Methodists, 
the  13  kinds  of  Baptists,  etc."  He  overlooked 
the  12  kinds  of  Mennonites  and  the  22  kinds 
of  Lutherans,  but  they  are  in  Rev.  Mr.  Car 
roll's  list.  Altogether,  76  splits  under  5  flags. 
The  Literary  Digest  (February  i4th)  is  pleased 
with  Mr.  Lindh's  optimistic  article,  and  also 
with  the  signs  of  the  times,  and  perceives  that 
"the  idea  of  Church  unity  is  in  the  air.1' 

Now,  then,  is  not  Mrs.  Eddy  profoundly  wise 
in  forbidding,  for  all  time,  all  explanations  of 
her  religion  except  such  as  she  shall  let  on  to 
be  her  own? 

I  think  so.  I  think  there  can  be  no  doubt  of 
it.  In  a  way,  they  will  be  her  own;  for,  no 
matter  which  member  of  her  clerical  staff  shall 
furnish  the  explanations,  not  a  line  of  them 
will  she  ever  allow  to  be  printed  until  she  shall 
have  approved  it,  accepted  it,  copyrighted  it, 
cabbaged  it.  We  may  depend  on  that  with  a 
four-ace  confidence. 


196 


THE    NEW    INFALLIBILITY 

All  in  proper  time  Mrs.  Eddy's  factory  will 
take  hold  of  that  Commandment,  and  explain 
it  for  good  and  all.  It  may  be  that  one  mem 
ber  of  the  shift  will  vote  that  the  word  "all'' 
means  all;  it  may  be  that  ten  members  of  the 
shift  will  vote  that  "all'"'  means  only  a  per 
centage;  but  it  is  Mrs.  Eddy,  not  the  eleven, 
who  will  do  the  deciding.  And  if  she  says  it  is 
percentage,  then  percentage  it  is,  forevermore 
— and  that  is  what  I  am  expecting,  for  she 
doesn't  sell  all  herself,  nor  any  considerable  part 
of  it,  and  as  regards  the  poor,  she  doesn't  de 
clare  any  dividend;  but  if  she  says  "  all "  means 
all,  then  all  it  is,  to  the  end  of  time,  and  no  fol 
lower  of  hers  will  ever  be  allowed  to  reconstruct 
that  text,  or  shrink  it,  or  inflate  it,  or  meddle 
with  it  in  any  way  at  all.  Even  to-day — right 
here  in  the  beginning — she  is  the  sole  person 
who,  in  the  matter  of  Christian  Science  ex 
egesis,  is  privileged  to  exploit  the  Spiral  Twist.1 
The  Christian  world  has  two  Infallibles  now. 

1  That  is  a  technicality — that  phrase.     I  got  it  of  an 
uncle  of  mine.     He  had  once  studied  in  a  theological  cem- 


197 

Of  equal  power?  For  the  present  only. 
When  Leo  XIII.  passes  to  his  rest  another  In 
fallible  will  ascend  his  throne  j1  others,  and  yet 
others,  and  still  others  will  follow  him,  and  be 
as  infallible  as  he,  and  decide  questions  of  doc 
trine  as  long  as  they  may  come  up,  all  down  the 
far  future ;  but  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy  is  the  only 
Infallible  that  will  ever  occupy  the  Science 
throne.  Many  a  Science  Pope  will  succeed  her, 
but  she  has  closed  their  mouths;  they  will  re 
peat  and  reverently  praise  and  adore  her  in 
fallibilities,  but  venture  none  themselves.  In 
her  grave  she  will  still  outrank  all  other  Popes, 
be  they  of  what  Church  they  may.  She  will 
hold  the  supremest  of  earthly  titles,  The  In 
fallible — with  a  capital  T.  Many  in  the  world's 
history  have  had  a  hunger  for  such  nuggets 
and  slices  of  power  as  they  might  reasonably 
hope  to  grab  out  of  an  empire's  or  a  religion's 
assets,  but  Mrs.  Eddy  is  the  only  person  alive 

etery,  he  said,  and  he  called  the  Department  of  Biblical 
Exegesis  the  Spiral  Twist  "for  short."  He  said  it  was  al 
ways  difficult  to  drive  a  straight  text  through  an  unac 
commodating  cork,  but  that  if  you  twisted  it  it  would  go. 
He  had  kept  bar  in  his  less  poetical  days. — M.  T. 
1  It  has  since  happened. — M.  T. 


198 

or  dead  who  has  ever  struck  for  the  whole  of 
them.  For  small  things  she  has  the  eye  of  a 
microscope,  for  large  ones  the  eye  of  a  telescope, 
and  whatever  she  sees,  she  wants.  Wants  it 
all. 

THE    SACRED   POEMS 

When  Mrs.  Eddy's  "sacred  revelations" 
(that  is  the  language  of  the  By-laws)  are  read 
in  public,  their  authorship  must  be  named. 
The  By-laws  twice  command  this,  therefore 
we  mention  it  twice,  to  be  fair. 

But  it  is  also  commanded  that  when  a  mem 
ber  publicly  quotes  "from  the  poems  of  our 
Pastor  Emeritus"  the  authorship  shall  be 
named.  For  these  are  sacred,  too.  There  are 
kindly  people  who  may  suspect  a  hidden  gen 
erosity  in  that  By-law;  they  may  think  it  is 
there  to  protect  the  Official  Reader  from  the 
suspicion  of  having  written  the  poems  himself. 
Such  do  not  know  Mrs.  Eddy.  She  does  an  in 
ordinate  deal  of  protecting,  but  in  no  distinctly 
named  and  specified  case  in  her  history  has 
Number  Two  been  the  object  of  it.  Instances 


199 

have  bqen  claimed,  but  they  have  failed  of 
proof,  and  even  of  plausibility. 

"  Members  shall  also  instruct  their  students  " 
to  look  out  and  advertise  the  authorship  when 
they  read  those  poems  and  things.  Not  on 
Mrs.  Eddy's  account,  but  "  for  the  good  of  our 
Cause.'* 

THE    CHURCH    EDIFICE 

1.  Mrs.   Eddy  gave  the  land.     It  was  not 
of  much  value  at  the  time,  but  it  is  very  valu 
able  now. 

2.  Her  people  built  the  Mother-Church  edi 
fice  on  it,  at  a  cost  of  two  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  dollars. 

3.  Then  they  gave  the  whole  property  to 
her. 

4.  Then  she  gave  it  to  the  Board  of  Directors. 
She  is  the  Board  of  Directors.     She  took  it  out 
of  one  pocket  and  put  it  in  the  other. 

5.  Sec.  10  (of  the  deed).  "  Whenever  said  Di 
rectors  shall  determine  that  it  is  inexpedient 
to  maintain  preaching,  reading,  or  speaking  in 
said  church  in  accordance  with  the  terms  of 


200 


this  deed,  they  are  authorized  and  required  to  re- 
convey  forthwith  said  lot  of  land  with  the  build 
ing  thereon  to  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy,  her  heirs  and 
assigns  forever,  by  a  proper  deed  of  conveyance. ' ' 

She  is  never  careless,  never  slipshod,  about 
a  matter  of  business.  Owning  the  property 
through  her  Board  of  Waxworks  was  safe 
enough,  still  it  was  sound  business  to  set  an 
other  grip  on  it  to  cover  accidents,  and  she  did  it. 

Her  barkers  (what  a  curious  name;  I  wonder 
if  it  is  copyrighted) ;  her  barkers  persistently 
advertise  to  the  public  her  generosity  in  giving 
away  a  piece  of  land  which  cost  her  a  trifle,  and 
a  two  -  hundred  -  and  -  fifty  -  thousand  -  dollar 
church  which  cost  her  nothing;  and  they  can 
hardly  speak  of  the  unselfishness  of  it  without 
breaking  down  and  crying;  yet  they  know  she 
gave  nothing  away,  and  never  intended  to. 
However,  such  is  the  human  race.  Often  it 
does  seem  such  a  pity  that  Noah  and  his  party 
did  not  miss  the  boat. 

Some  of  the  hostiles  think  that  Mrs.  Eddy's 
idea  in  protecting  this  property  in  the  interest 
of  her  heirs,  and  in  accumulating  a  great  money- 


201 


fortune,  is,  that  she  may  leave  her  natural  heirs 
well  provided  for  when  she  goes.  I  think  it  is  a 
mistake.  I  think  she  is  of  late  years  giving  her 
self  large  concern  about  only  one  interest — her 
power  and  glory,  and  the  perpetuation  and  wor 
ship  of  her  Name  —  with  a  capital  N.  Her 
Church  is  her  pet  heir,  and  I  think  it  will  get  her 
wealth.  It  is  the  torch  which  is  to  light  the 
world  and  the  ages  with  her  glory. 

I  think  she  once  prized  money  for  the  ease 
and  comfort  it  could  bring,  the  showy  vanities 
it  could  furnish,  and  the  social  promotion  it 
could  command ;  for  we  have  seen  that  she  was 
born  into  the  world  with  little  ways  and  in 
stincts  and  aspirations  and  affectations  that  are 
duplicates  of  our  own.  I  do  not  think  her 
money-passion  has  ever  diminished  in  ferocity, 
I  do  not  think  that  she  has  ever  allowed  a  dollar 
that  had  no  friends  to  get  by  her  alive,  but  I 
think  her  reason  for  wanting  it  has  changed.  I 
think  she  wants  it  now  to  increase  and  estab 
lish  and  perpetuate  her  power  and  glory  with, 
not  to  add  to  her  comforts  and  luxuries,  not  to 
furnish  paint  and  fuss  and  feathers  for  vain  dis 
play.  I  think  her  ambitions  have  soared  away 


2O2 


above  the  f uss  -  and  -  feather  stage.  She  still 
likes  the  little  shows  and  vanities — a  fact  which 
she  exposed  in  a  public  utterance  two  or  three 
days  ago  when  she  was  not  noticing1 — but  I 
think  she  does  not  place  a  large  value  upon 
them  now.  She  could  build  a  mighty  and  far- 
shining  brass-mounted  palace  if  she  wanted  to, 
but  she  does  not  do  it.  She  would  have  had 
that  kind  of  an  ambition  in  the  early  scrabbling 
times.  She  could  go  to  England  to-day  and  be 
worshipped  by  earls,  and  get  a  comet's  atten 
tion  from  the  million,  if  she  cared  for  such 
things.  She  would  have  gone  in  the  early 
scrabbling  days  for  much  less  than  an  earl,  and 
been  vain  of  it,  and  glad  to  show  off  before  the 
remains  of  the  Scotch  kin.  But  those  things 
are  very  small  to  her  now — next  to  invisible, 
observed  through  the  cloud-rack  from  the  dizzy 
summit  where  she  perches  in  these  great  days. 
She  does  not  want  that  church  property  for  her 
self.  It  is  worth  but  a  quarter  of  a  million — a 
sum  she  could  call  in  from  her  far-spread  flocks 
to-morrow  with  a  lift  of  her  hand.  Not  a 

1  This  is  a  reference  to  her  public  note  of  January  iyth. 
See  Appendix.— M.  T. 


203 

squeeze  of  it,  just  a  lift.  It  would  come  with 
out  a  murmur;  come  gratefully,  come  gladly. 
And  if  her  glory  stood  in  more  need  of  the  money 
in  Boston  than  it  does  where  her  flocks  are 
propagating  it,  she  would  lift  the  hand,  I  think. 
She  is  still  reaching  for  the  Dollar,  she  will 
continue  to  reach  for  it;  but  not  that  she  may 
spend  it  upon  herself;  not  that  she  may  spend 
it  upon  charities;  not  that  she  may  indemnify 
an  early  deprivation  and  clothe  herself  in  a 
blaze  of  North  Adams  gauds ;  not  that  she  may 
have  nine  breeds  of  pie  for  breakfast,  as  only 
the  rich  New-Englander  can ;  not  that  she  may 
indulge  any  petty  material  vanity  or  appetite 
that  once  was  hers  and  prized  and  nursed,  but 
that  she  may  apply  that  Dollar  to  statelier 
uses,  and  place  it  where  it  may  cast  the  metallic 
sheen  of  her  glory  farthest  across  the  receding 
expanses  of  the  globe. 

PRAYER 

A  brief  and  good  one  is  furnished  in  the  book 
of  By-laws.     The  Scientist  is  required  to  pray 

it  every  day. 
14 


204 
THE    LORD'S    PRAYER — AMENDED 

This  is  not  in  the  By-laws,  it  is  in  the  first 
chapter  of  Science  and  Health,  edition  of  1902. 
I  do  not  find  it  in  the  edition  of  1884.  It  is 
probable  that  it  had  not  at  that  time  been 
handed  down.  Science  and  Health's  (latest) 
rendering  of  its  "spiritual  sense"  is  as  fol 
lows: 

"Our  Father-Mother  God,  all-harmonious, 
adorable  One.  Thy  kingdom  is  within  us, 
Thou  art  ever-present.  Enable  us  to  know- 
as  in  heaven,  so  on  earth — God  is  supreme. 
Give  us  grace  for  to-day ;  feed  the  famished  af 
fections.  And  infinite  Love  is  reflected  in  love. 
And  Love  leadeth  us  not  into  temptation,  but 
delivereth  from  sin,  disease,  and  death.  For 
God  is  now  and  forever  all  Life,  Truth,  and 
Love."1 

If  I  thought  my  opinion  was  desired  and 
would  be  properly  revered,  I  should  say  that  in 
my  judgment  that  is  as  good  a  piece  of  carpen 
tering  as  any  of  those  eleven  Commandment- 

1  For  the  latest  version,  see  Appendix. — M.  T. 


205 

experts  could  do  with  the  material,  after  all 
their  practice.  I  notice  only  one  doubtful 
place.  "  Lead  us  not  into  temptation  "  seems 
to  me  to  be  a  very  definite  request,  and  that  the 
new  rendering  turns  the  definite  request  into  a 
definite  assertion.  I  shall  be  glad  to  have  that 
turned  back  to  the  old  way  and  the  marks  of 
the  Spiral  Twist  removed,  or  varnished  over; 
then  I  shall  be  satisfied,  and  will  do  the  best  I 
can  with  what  is  left.  At  the  same  time,  I  do 
feel  that  the  shrinkage  in  our  spiritual  assets  is 
getting  serious.  First  the  Commandments,  now 
the  Prayer.  I  never  expected  to  see  these 
steady  old  reliable  securities  watered  down  to 
this.  And  this  is  not  the  whole  of  it.  Last 
summer  the  Presbyterians  extended  the  Calling 
and  Election  suffrage  to  nearly  everybody  en 
titled  to  salvation.  They  did  not  even  stop 
there,  but  let  out  all  the  unbaptized  American 
infants  we  had  been  accumulating  for  two  hun 
dred  years  and  more.  There  are  some  that  be 
lieve  they  would  have  let  the  Scotch  ones  out, 
too,  if  they  could  have  done  it.  Everything  is 
going  to  ruin;  in  no  long  time  we  shall  have 
nothing  left  but  the  love  of  God. 


2O6 


THE    NEW    UNPARDONABLE    SIN 

"  Working  Against  the  Cause.  Sec.  2.  If  a 
member  of  this  Church  shall  work  against 
the  accomplishment  of  what  the  Discoverer  and 
Founder  of  Christian  Science  understands  is  ad 
vantageous  to  the  individual,  to  this  Church, 
and  to  the  Cause  of  Christian  Science  " — out  he 
goes.  Forever. 

The  member  may  think  that  what  he  is  doing 
will  advance  the  Cause,  but  he  is  not  invited  to 
do  any  thinking.  More  than  that,  he  is  not 
permitted  to  do  any — as  he  will  clearly  gather 
from  this  By-law.  When  a  person  joins  Mrs. 
Eddy's  Church  he  must  leave  his  thinker  at 
home.  Leave  it  permanently.  To  make  sure 
that  it  will  not  go  off  some  time  or  other  when 
he  is  not  watching,  it  will  be  safest  for  him  to 
spike  it.  If  he  should  forget  himself  and  think 
just  once,  the  By-law  provides  that  he  shall  be 
fired  out — instantly — forever — no  return. 

"  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  this  Church  immedi 
ately  to  call  a  meeting,  and  drop  forever  the 
name  of  this  member  from  its  records.'1 


207 

My,  but  it  breathes  a  towering  indignation! 

There  are  forgivable  offences,  but  this  is  not 
one  of  them ;  there  are  admonitions,  probations, 
suspensions,  in  several  minor  cases;  mercy  is 
shown  the  derelict,  in  those  cases  he  is  gently 
used,  and  in  time  he  can  get  back  into  the  fold 
—even  when  he  has  repeated  his  offence.  But 
let  him  think,  just  once,  without  getting  his 
thinker  set  to  Eddy  time,  and  that  is  enough; 
his  head  comes  off.  There  is  no  second  offence, 
and  there  is  no  gate  open  to  that  lost  sheep, 
ever  again. 

"  This  rule  cannot  be  changed,  amended,  or  an 
nulled,  except  by  unanimous  vote  of  all  the  First 
Members." 

The  same  being  Mrs.  Eddy.  It  is  naively  sly 
and  pretty  to  see  her  keep  putting  forward 
First  Members,  and  Boards  of  This  and  That, 
and  other  broideries  and  ruffles  of  her  raiment, 
as  if  they  were  independent  entities,  instead  of  a 
part  of  her  clothes,  and  could  do  things  all  by 
themselves  when  she  was  outside  of  them. 

Mrs.  Eddy  did  not  need  to  copyright  the  sen- 


208 

tence  just  quoted,  its  English  would  protect  it. 
None  but  she  would  have  shovelled  that  com 
ically  superfluous  "all"  in  there. 

The  former  Unpardonable  Sin  has  gone  out 
of  service.  We  may  frame  the  new  Christian 
Science  one  thus: 

"  Whatsoever  Member  shall  think,  and  with 
out  Our  Mother's  permission  act  upon  his  think, 
the  same  shall  be  cut  off  from  the  Church  for 


ever." 


It  has  been  said  that  I  make  many  mistakes 
about  Christian  Science  through  being  ignorant 
of  the  spiritual  meanings  of  its  terminology.  I 
believe  it  is  true.  I  have  been  misled  all  this 
time  by  that  word  Member,  because  there  was 
no  one  to  tell  me  that  its  spiritual  meaning  was 
Slave. 

AXE   AND    BLOCK 

There  is  a  By-law  which  forbids  Members  to 
practise  hypnotism ;  the  penalty  is  excommuni 
cation. 

1.  If  a  member  is  found  to  be  a  mental  prac 
titioner — 

2.  Complaint  is  to  be  entered  against  him — • 


209 

3.  By  the  Pastor  Emeritus,  and  by  none  else; 

4.  No  member  is  allowed  to  make  complaint 
to  her  in  the  matter; 

5.  Upon  Mrs.   Eddy's  mere   "complaint" — 
unbacked  by  evidence  or  proof,  and  without  giving 
the  accused  a  chance  to  be  heard — "  his  name  shall 
be  dropped  from  this  Church." 

Mrs.  Eddy  has  only  to  say  a  member  is  guilty 
— that  is  all.  That  ends  it.  It  is  not  a  case  of 
he  "  may  "  be  cut  off  from  Christian  Science  sal 
vation,  it  is  a  case  of  he  "  shall "  be.  Her  serfs 
must  see  to  it,  and  not  say  a  word. 

Does  the  other  Pope  possess  this  prodigious 
and  irresponsible  power?  Certainly  not  in  our 
day. 

Some  may  be  curious  to  know  how  Mrs.  Eddy 
finds  out  that  a  member  is  practising  hypnotism, 
since  no  one  is  allowed  to  come  before  her  throne 
and  accuse  him.  She  has  explained  this  in 
Christian  Science  History,  first  and  second  edi 
tions,  page  16: 

"  I  possess  a  spiritual  sense  of  what  the  ma 
licious  mental  practitioner  is  mentally  arguing 
which  cannot  be  deceived ;  I  can  discern  in  the 


210 


human  mind  thoughts,  motives,  and  purposes; 
and  neither  i  Cental  arguments  nor  psychic 
power  can  affect  this  spiritual  insight." 

A  marvellous  woman ;  with  a  hunger  for  pow 
er  such  as  has  never  been  seen  in  the  world  be 
fore.  No  thing,  little  or  big,  that  contains  any 
seed  or  suggestion  of  power  escapes  her  avari 
cious  eye;  and  when  once  she  gets  that  eye  on 
it,  her  remorseless  grip  follows.  There  isn't  a 
Christian  Scientist  who  isn't  ecclesiastically  as 
much  her  property  as  if  she  had  bought  him 
and  paid  for  him,  and  copyrighted  him  and  got 
a  charter.  She  cannot  be  satisfied  when  she 
has  handcuffed  a  member,  and  put  a  leg-chain 
and  ball  on  him  and  plugged  his  ears  and  re 
moved  his  thinker,  she  goes  on  wrapping  need 
less  chains  round  and  round  him,  just  as  a 
spider  would.  For  she  trusts  no  one,  believes 
in  no  one's  honesty,  judges  every  one  by  her 
self.  Although  we  have  seen  that  she  has  ab 
solute  and  irresponsible  command  over  her 
spectral  Boards  and  over  every  official  and  ser 
vant  of  her  Church,  at  home  and  abroad,  over 
every  minute  detail  of  her  Church's  govern- 


211 


ment,  present  and  future,  and  can  purge  her 
membership  of  guilty  or  suspected  persons  by 
various  plausible  formalities  and  whenever  she 
will,  she  is  still  not  content,  but  must  set  her 
queer  mind  to  work  and  invent  a  way  by  which 
she  can  take  a  member — any  member — by  neck 
and  crop  and  fling  him  out  without  anything 
resembling  a  formality  at  all. 

She  is  sole  accuser  and  sole  witness,  and  her 
testimony  is  final  and  carries  uncompromising 
and  irremediable  doom  with  it. 

The  Sole- Witness  Court !  It  should  make  the 
Council  of  Ten  and  the  Council  of  Three  turn  in 
their  graves  for  shame,  to  see  how  little  they 
knew  about  satanic  concentrations  of  irre 
sponsible  power.  Here  we  have  one  Accuser, 
one  Witness,  one  Judge,  one  Headsman — and 
all  four  bunched  together  in  Mrs.  Eddy,  the  In 
spired  of  God,  His  Latest  Thought  to  His  Peo 
ple,  New  Member  of  the  Holy  Family,  the 
Equal  of  Jesus. 

When  a  Member  is  not  satisfactory  to  Mrs. 
Eddy,  and  yet  is  blameless  in  his  life  and  fault 
less  in  his  membership  and  in  his  Christian 
Science  walk  and  conversation,  shall  he  hold 


212 


up  his  head  and  tilt  his  hat  over  one  ear  and 
imagine  himself  safe  because  of  these  perfec 
tions?  Why,  in  that  very  moment  Mrs.  Eddy 
will  cast  that  spiritual  X-ray  of  hers  through 
his  dungarees  and  say: 

"  I  see  his  hypnotism  working,  among  his  in- 
sides — remove  him  to  the  block!" 

What  shall  it  profit  him  to  know  it  isn't  so? 
Nothing.  His  testimony  is  of  no  value.  No 
one  wants  it,  no  one  will  ask  for  it.  He  is  not 
present  to  offer  it  (he  does  not  know  he  has 
been  accused),  and  if  he  were  there  to  offer  it,  it 
would  not  be  listened  to. 

It  was  out  of  powers  approaching  Mrs.  Eddy's 
— though  not  equalling  them — that  the  Inquisi 
tion  and  the  devastations  of  the  Interdict  grew. 
She  will  transmit  hers.  The  man  born  two 
centuries  from  now  will  think  he  has  arrived  in 
hell ;  and  all  in  good  time  he  will  think  he  knows 
it.  Vast  concentrations  of  irresponsible  power 
have  never  in  any  age  been  used  mercifully,  and 
there  is  nothing  to  suggest  that  the  Christian 
Science  Papacy  is  going  to  spend  money  on 
novelties. 

Several  Christian  Scientists  have  asked  me 


to  refrain  from  prophecy.  There  is  no  prophecy 
in  our  day  but  history.  But  history  is  a  trust 
worthy  prophet.  History  is  always  repeating 
itself,  because  conditions  are  always  repeating 
themselves.  Out  of  duplicated  conditions  his 
tory  always  gets  a  duplicate  product. 

READING  LETTERS  AT  MEETINGS 

I  wonder  if  there  is  anything  a  Member  can 
do  that  will  not  raise  Mrs.  Eddy's  jealousy? 
The  By-laws  seem  to  hunt  him  from  pillar  to 
post  all  the  time,  and  turn  all  his  thoughts  and 
acts  and  words  into  sins  against  the  meek  and 
lowly  new  deity  of  his  worship.  Apparently 
her  jealousy  never  sleeps.  Apparently  any  tri 
fle  can  offend  it,  and  but  one  penalty  appease 
it — excommunication.  The  By-laws  might 
properly  and  reasonably  be  entitled  Laws  for 
the  Coddling  and  Comforting  of  Our  Mother's 
Petty  Jealousies.  The  By-law  named  at  the 
head  of  this  paragraph  reads  its  transgressor 
out  of  the  Church  if  he  shall  carry  a  letter  from 
Mrs.  Eddy  to  the  congregation  and  forget  to 
read  it  or  fail  to  read  the  whole  of  it. 


214 


HONESTY    REQUISITE 

Dishonest  members  are  to  be  admonished ;  if 
they  continue  in  dishonest  practices,  excom 
munication  follows.  Considering  who  it  is  that 
draughted  this  law,  there  is  a  certain  amount 
of  humor  in  it. 

FURTHER    APPLICATIONS    OF    THE    AXE 

Here  follow  the  titles  of  some  more  By-laws 
whose  infringement  is  punishable  by  excom 
munication  : 

Silence  Enjoined. 

Misteaching. 

Departure  from  Tenets. 

Violation  of  Christian  Fellowship. 

Moral  Offences. 

Illegal  Adoption. 

Broken  By-laws. 

Violation  of  By-laws.  (What  is  the  differ 
ence  ?) 

Formulas  Forbidden. 

Official  Advice.  (Forbids  Tom,  Dick,  and 
Harry's  clack.) 


215 

Unworthy  of  Membership. 
Final  Excommunication. 
Organizing  Churches. 

This  looks  as  if  Mrs.  Eddy  had  devoted  a 
large  share  of  her  time  and  talent  to  inventing 
ways  to  get  rid  of  her  Church  members.  Yet 
in  another  place  she  seems  to  invite  member 
ship.  Not  in  any  urgent  way,  it  is  true,  still 
she  throws  out  a  bait  to  such  as  like  notice  and 
distinction  (in  other  words,  the  Human  Race). 
Page  82: 

"It  is  important  that  these  seemingly  strict 
conditions  be  complied  with,  as  the  names  of  the 
Members  of  the  Mother-Church  will  be  recorded 
in  the  history  of  the  Church  and  become  a  part 
thereof." 

We  all  want  to  be  historical. 

MORE    SELF-PROTECTIONS 

The  Hymnal.  There  is  a  Christian  Science 
Hymnal.  Entrance  to  it  was  closed  in  1898. 
Christian  Science  students  who  make  hymns 


2l6 


nowadays  may  possibly  get  them  sung  in  the 
Mother-Church,  "  but  not  unless  approved  by  the 
Pastor  Emeritus.1'  Art.  XXVII -,  Sec.  2. 

Solo  Singers.  Mrs.  Eddy  has  contributed  the 
words  of  three  of  the  hymns  in  the  Hymnal. 
Two  of  them  appear  in  it  six  times  altogether, 
each  of  them  being  set  to  three  original  forms  of 
musical  anguish.  Mrs.  Eddy,  always  thought 
ful,  has  promulgated  a  By-law  requiring  the 
singing  of  one  of  her  three  hymns  in  the  Mother- 
Church  "  as  often  as  once  each  month."  It  is  a 
good  idea.  A  congregation  could  get  tired  of 
even  Mrs.  Eddy's  muse  in  the  course  of  time, 
without  the  cordializing  incentive  of  compul 
sion.  We  all  know  how  wearisome  the  sweet 
est  and  touchingest  things  can  become,  through 
rep-rep-repetition,  and  still  rep-rep-repetition, 
and  more  rep-rep-repetition— like  "the  sweet 
by-and-by,  in  the  sweet  by-and-by,"  for  in 
stance,  and  "  Tah-rah-rah  boom-de-aye  " ;  and 
surely  it  is  not  likely  that  Mrs.  Eddy's  machine 
has  turned  out  goods  that  could  outwear  those 
great  heart-stirrers,  without  the  assistance  of 
the  lash.  "O'er  Waiting  Harpstrings  of  the 
Mind"  is  pretty  good,  quite  fair  to  middling — 


217 

the  whole  seven  of  the  stanzas — but  repetition 
would  be  certain  to  take  the  excitement  out  of 
it  in  the  course  of  time,  even  if  there  were  four 
teen,  and  then  it  would  sound  like  the  multipli 
cation  table,  and  would  cease  to  save.  The 
congregation  would  be  perfectly  sure  to  get 
tired;  in  fact,  did  get  tired — hence  the  compul 
sory  By-law.  It  is  a  measure  born  of  experi 
ence,  not  foresight. 

The  By-laws  say  that  "  if  a  solo  singer  shall 
neglect  or  refuse  to  sing  alone"  one  of  those 
three  hymns  as  often  as  once  a  month,  and 
oftener  if  so  directed  by  the  Board  of  Directors 
—which  is  Mrs.  Eddy — the  singer's  salary  shall 
be  stepped.  It  is  circumstantial  evidence  that 
some  soloists  neglected  this  sacrament  and 
others  refused  it.  At  least  that  is  the  charita 
ble  view  to  take  of  it.  There  is  only  one  other 
view  to  take :  that  Mrs.  Eddy  did  really  foresee 
that  there  would  be  singers  who  would  some 
day  get  tired  of  doing  her  hymns  and  proclaim 
ing  the  authorship,  unless  persuaded  by  a  By 
law,  with  a  penalty  attached.  The  idea  could 
of  course  occur  to  her  wise  head,  for  she  would 
know  that  a  seven-stanza  break  might  well  be  a 


2l8 

calamitous  strain  upon  a  soloist,  and  that  he 
might  therefore  avoid  it  if  un watched.  He 
could  not  curtail  it,  for  the  whole  of  anything 
that  Mrs.  Eddy  does  is  sacred,  and  cannot  be 
cut. 

BOARD   OF   EDUCATION 

It  consists  of  four  members,  one  of  whom  is 
President  of  it.  Its  members  are  elected  an 
nually.  Subject  to  Mrs.  Eddy's  approval.  Art. 
XXX.,  Sec.  2. 

She  owns  the  Board — is  the  Board. 

Mrs.  Eddy  is  President  of  the  Metaphysical 
College.  If  at  any  time  she  shall  vacate  that 
office,  the  Directors  of  the  College  (that  is  to 
say,  Mrs.  Eddy)  "shall"  elect  to  the  vacancy 
the  President  of  the  Board  of  Education  (which 
is  merely  re-electing  herself). 

It  is  another  case  of  "  Pastor  Emeritus."  She 
gives  up  the  shadow  of  authority,  but  keeps  a 
good  firm  hold  on  the  substance. 

PUBLIC    TEACHERS 

Applicants  for  admission  to  this  industry 
must  pass  a  thorough  three  days'  examination 


219 

before  the  Board  of  Education  "in  Science  and 
Health,  chapter  on  '  Recapitulation ' ;  the  Plat 
form  of  Christian  Science ;  page  403  of  Christian 
Science  Practice,  from  line  second  to  the  second 
paragraph  of  page  405;  and  page  488,  second 
and  third  paragraphs. " 

BOARD   OF   LECTURESHIP 

The  lecturers  are  exceedingly  important  ser 
vants  of  Mrs.  Eddy,  and  she  chooses  them  with 
great  care.  Each  of  them  has  an  appointed 
territory  in  which  to  perform  his  duties — in 
the  North,  the  South,  the  East,  the  West,  in 
Canada,  in  Great  Britain,  and  so  on — and  each 
must  stick  to  his  own  territory  and  not  forage 
beyond  its  boundaries.  I  think  it  goes  without 
saying — from  what  we  have  seen  of  Mrs.  Eddy 
— that  no  lecture  is  delivered  until  she  has  ex 
amined  and  approved  it,  and  that  the  lecturer 
is  not  allowed  to  change  it  afterwards. 

The  members  of  the  Board  of  Lectureship  are 
elected  annually — 

"Subject  to  the  approval  of  Rev.  Mary  Baker 
G.  Eddy." 

15' 


22O 


MISSIONARIES 

There  are  but  four.  They  are  elected — like 
the  rest  of  the  domestics — annually.  So  far  as 
I  can  discover,  not  a  single  servant  of  the  Sacred 
Household  has  a  steady  job  except  Mrs.  Eddy. 
It  is  plain  that  she  trusts  no  human  being  but 
herself. 

THE    BY-LAWS 

The  branch  Churches  are  strictly  forbidden  to 
use  them. 

So  far  as  I  can  see,  they  could  not  do  it  if 
they  wanted  to.  The  By-laws  are  merely  the 
voice  of  the  master  issuing  commands  to  the 
servants.  There  is  nothing  and  nobody  for  the 
servants  to  re-utter  them  to. 

That  useless  edict  is  repeated  in  the  little 
book,  a  few  pages  farther  on.  There  are  sev 
eral  other  repetitions  of  prohibitions  in  the  book 
that  could  be  spared — they  only  take  up  room 
for  nothing. 

THE    CREED 

It  is  copyrighted.  I  do  not  know  why,  but  I 
suppose  it  is  to  keep  adventurers  from  some  day 


221 


claiming  that  they  invented  it,  and  not  Mrs. 
Eddy  and  that  "  strange  Providence  "  that  has 
suggested  so  many  clever  things  to  her. 

No  Change.  It  is  forbidden  to  change  the 
Creed.  That  is  important,  at  any  rate. 

COPYRIGHT 

I  can  understand  why  Mrs.  Eddy  copyrighted 
the  early  editions  and  revisions  of  Science  and 
Health,  and  why  she  had  a  mania  for  copy 
righting  every  scrap  of  every  sort  that  came 
from  her  pen  in  those  jejune  days  when  to  be 
in  print  probably  seemed  a  wonderful  distinc 
tion  to  her  in  her  provincial  obscurity,  but  why 
she  should  continue  this  delirium  in  these  days 
of  her  godship  and  her  far-spread  fame,  I  can 
not  explain  to  myself.  And  particularly  as  re 
gards  Science  and  Health.  She  knows,  now, 
that  that  Annex  is  going  to  live  for  many  cen 
turies;  and  so,  what  good  is  a  fleeting  forty- 
two-year  copyright  going  to  do  it? 

Now  a  perpetual  copyright  would  be  quite 
another  matter.  I  would  like  to  give  her  a  hint. 
Let  her  strike  for  a  perpetual  copyright  on  that 


222 


book.  There  is  precedent  foi  it.  There  is  one 
book  in  the  world  which  bears  the  charmed  life 
of  perpetual  copyright  (a  fact  not  known  to 
twenty  people  in  the  world) .  By  a  hardy  per 
version  of  privilege  on  the  part  of  the  law- 
making  power  the  Bible  has  perpetual  copy 
right  in  Great  Britain.  There  is  no  justification 
for  it  in  fairness,  and  no  explanation  of  it  except 
that  the  Church  is  strong  enough  there  to  have 
its  way,  right  or  wrong.  The  recent  Revised 
Version  enjoys  perpetual  copyright,  too  —  a 
stronger  precedent,  even,  than  the  other  one. 

Now,  then,  what  is  the  Annex  but  a  Revised 
Version  itself?  Which  of  course  it  is — Lord's 
Prayer  and  all.  With  that  pair  of  formidable 
British  precedents  to  proceed  upon,  what  Con 
gress  of  ours — 

But  how  short-sighted  I  am.  Mrs.  Eddy  has 
thought  of  it  long  ago.  She  thinks  of  every 
thing.  She  knows  she  has  only  to  keep  her 
copyright  of  1902  alive  through  its  first  stage  of 
twenty-eight  years,  and  perpetuity  is  assured. 
A  Christian  Science  Congress  will  reign  in  the 
Capitol  then.  She  probably  attaches  small  value 
to  the  first  edition  (1875).  Although  it  was  a 


Revelation  from  on  high,  it  was  slim,  lank,  in 
complete,  padded  with  bales  of  refuse  rags,  and 
puffs  from  lassoed  celebrities  to  fill  it  out,  an 
uncreditable  book,  a  book  easily  sparable,  a 
book  not  to  be  mentioned  in  the  same  year  with 
the  sleek,  fat,  concise,  compact,  compressed, 
and  competent  Annex  of  to-day,  in  its  dainty 
flexible  covers,  gilt -edges,  rounded  corners, 
twin  screw,  spiral  twist,  compensation  balance, 
Testament-counterfeit,  and  all  that;  a  book 
just  born  to  curl  up  on  the  hymn-book-shelf 
in  church  and  look  just  too  sweet  and  holy  for 
anything.  Yes,  I  see  now  what  she  was  copy 
righting  that  child  for. 

CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE    PUBLISHING    ASSOCIATION 

It  is  true — in  matters  of  business  Mrs.  Eddy 
thinks  of  everything.  She  thought  of  an  organ, 
to  disseminate  the  Truth  as  it  was  in  Mrs.  Eddy. 
Straightway  she  started  one  —  the  Christian 
Science  Journal. 

It  is  true — in  matters  of  business  Mrs.  Eddy 
thinks  of  everything.  As  soon  as  she  had  got 
the  Christian  Science  Journal  sufficiently  in 


224 

debt  to  make  its  presence  on  the  premises  dis 
agreeable  to  her,  it  occurred  to  her  to  make 
somebody  a  present  of  it.  Which  she  did, 
along  with  its  debts.  It  was  in  the  summer  of 
1889.  The  victim  selected  was  her  Church- 
called,  in  those  days,  The  National  Christian 
Scientist  Association. 

She  delivered  this  sorrow  to  those  lambs  as 
a  "gift"  in  consideration  of  their  "loyalty  to 
our  great  cause. " 

Also — still  thinking  of  everything — she  told 
them  to  retain  Mr.  Bailey  in  the  editorship  and 
make  Mr.  Nixon  publisher.  We  do  not  know 
what  it  was  she  had  against  those  men ;  neither 
do  we  know  whether  she  scored  on  Bailey  or 
not,  we  only  know  that  God  protected  Nixon, 
and  for  that  I  am  sincerely  glad,  although  I  do 
not  know  Nixon  and  have  never  even  seen 
him. 

Nixon  took  the  Journal  and  the  rest  of  the 
Publishing  Society's  liabilities,  and  demon 
strated  over  them  during  three  years,  then 
brought  in  his  report: 

"  On  assuming  my  duties  as  publisher,  there 
was  not  a  dollar  in  the  treasury;  but  on  the  con- 


225 

trary  the  Society  owed  unpaid  printing  and 
paper  bills  to  the  amount  of  several  hundred 
dollars,  not  to  mention  a  contingent  liability  of 
many  more  hundreds" — represented  by  ad 
vance-subscriptions  paid  for  the  Journal  and 
the  "  Series,"  the  which  goods  Mrs.  Eddy  had 
not  delivered.  And  couldn't,  very  well,  per 
haps,  on  a  Metaphysical  College  income  of  but 
a  few  thousand  dollars  a  day,  or  a  week,  or 
whatever  it  was  in  those  magnificently  flourish 
ing  times.  The  struggling  Journal  had  swal 
lowed  up  those  advance  -  payments,  but  its 
" claim"  was  a  severe  one  and  they  had  failed 
to  cure  it.  But  Nixon  cured  it  in  his  diligent 
three  years,  and  joyously  reported  the  news 
that  he  had  cleared  off  all  the  debts  and  now 
had  a  fat  six  thousand  dollars  in  the  bank. 

It  made  Mrs.  Eddy's  mouth  water. 

At  the  time  that  Mrs.  Eddy  had  unloaded 
that  dismal  gift  on  to  her  National  Association, 
she  had  followed  her  inveterate  custom:  she 
had  tied  a  string  to  its  hind  leg,  and  kept  one 
end  of  it  hitched  to  her  belt.  We  have  seen  her 
do  that  in  the  case  of  the  Boston  Mosque. 
When  she  deeds  property,  she  puts  in  that 


226 

string-clause.  It  provides  that  under  certain 
conditions  she  can  pull  the  string  and  land  the 
property  in  the  cherished  home  of  its  happy 
youth.  In  the  present  case  she  believed  that 
she  had  made  provision  that  if  at  any  time  the 
National  Christian  Science  Association  should 
dissolve  itself  by  a  formal  vote,  she  could  pull. 

A  year  after  Nixon's  handsome  report,  she 
writes  the  Association  that  she  has  a  "  unique 
request  to  lay  before  it."  It  has  dissolved,  and 
she  is  not  quite  sure  that  the  Christian  Science 
Journal  has  "  already  fallen  into  her  hands  "  by 
that  act,  though  it  "  seems  "  to  her  to  have  met 
with  that  accident;  so  she  would  like  to  have 
the  matter  decided  by  a  formal  vote.  But 
whether  there  is  a  doubt  or  not,  "  I  see  the 
wisdom,"  she  says,  "  of  again  owning  this  Chris 
tian  Science  waif." 

I  think  that  that  is  unassailable  evidence  that 
the  waif  was  making  money,  hands  down.^ 

She  pulled  her  gift  in.  A  few  years  later  she 
donated  the  Publishing  Society,  along  with  its 
real  estate,  its  buildings,  its  plant,  its  publica 
tions,  and  its  money — the  whole  worth  twenty- 
two  thousand  dollars,  and  free  of  debt — to — 


227 

Well,  to  the  Mother-Church! 

That  is  to  say,  to  herself.  There  is  an  ac 
count  of  it  in  the  Christian  Science  Journal,  and 
of  how  she  had  already  made  some  other  hand 
some  gifts — to  her  Church — and  others  to — to 
her  Cause — besides  "  an  almost  countless  num 
ber  of  private  charities  "  of  cloudy  amount  and 
otherwise  indefinite.  This  landslide  of  gener 
osities  overwhelmed  one  of  her  literary  do 
mestics.  While  he  was  in  that  condition  he 
tried  to  express  what  he  felt: 

"  Let  us  endeavor  to  lift  up  our  hearts  in 
thankfulness  to  ...  our  Mother  in  Israel  for 
these  evidences  of  generosity  and  self-sac 
rifice  that  appeal  to  our  deepest  sense  of 
gratitude,  even  while  surpassing  our  compre 
hension/' 

A  year  or  two  later,  Mrs.  Eddy  promulgated 
some  By-laws  of  a  self-sacrificing  sort  which 
assuaged  him,  perhaps,  and  perhaps  enabled 
his  surpassed  comprehension  to  make  a  sprint 
and  catch  up.  These  are  to  be  found  in  Art. 
XII.,  entitled 


228 


THE   CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE    PUBLISHING   SOCIETY 

This  Article  puts  the  whole  publishing  busi 
ness  into  the  hands  of  a  publishing  Board- 
special.  Mrs.  Eddy  appoints  to  its  vacancies. 

The  profits  go  semi-annually  to  the  Treasurer 
of  the  Mother  -  Church.  Mrs.  Eddy  owns  the 
Treasurer. 

Editors  and  publishers  of  the  Christian 
Science  Journal  cannot  be  elected  or  removed 
without  Mrs.  Eddy's  knowledge  and  consent. 

Every  candidate  for  employment  in  a  high 
capacity  or  a  low  one,  on  the  other  periodi 
cals  or  in  the  publishing  house,  must  first  be 
"  accepted  by  Mrs.  Eddy  as  suitable."  And  "  by 
the  Board  of  Directors" — which  is  surplusage, 
since  Mrs.  Eddy  owns  the  Board. 

If  at  any  time  a  weekly  shall  be  started,  "  it 
shall  be  owned  by  The  First  Church  of  Christ, 
Scientist" — which  is  Mrs.  Eddy. 


CHAPTER    VIII 

I  THINK  that  any  one  who  will  carefully  ex 
amine  the  By-laws  (I  have  placed  all  of  the 
important  ones  before  the  reader),  will  arrive 
at  the  conclusion  that  of  late  years  the  master- 
passion  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  heart  is  a  hunger  for 
power  and  glory ;  and  that  while  her  hunger  for 
money  still  remains,  she  wants  it  now  for  the 
expansion  and  extension  it  can  furnish  to  that 
power  and  glory,  rather  than  what  it  can  do  for 
her  towards  satisfying  minor  and  meaner  am 
bitions. 

I  wish  to  enlarge  a  little  upon  this  matter.  I 
think  it  is  quite  clear  that  the  reason  why  Mrs. 
Eddy  has  concentrated  in  herself  all  powers, 
all  distinctions,  all  revenues  that  are  within  the 
command  of  the  Christian  Science  Church  Uni 
versal  is  that  she  desires  and  intends  to  devote 
them  to  the  purpose  just  suggested — the  up 
building  of  her  personal  glory — hers,  and  no 
one  else's;  that,  and  the  continuing  of  her 


230 

name's  glory  after  she  shall  have  passed  away. 
//  she  has  overlooked  a  single  power,  howsoever 
minute,  I  cannot  discover  it.  If  she  has  found 
one,  large  or  small,  which  she  has  not  seized  and 
made  her  own,  there  is  no  record  of  it,  no  trace  of 
it.  In  her  foragings  and  depredations  she  usu 
ally  puts  forward  the  Mother  -  Church — a  lay 
figure — and  hides  behind  it.  Whereas,  she  is  in 
manifest  reality  the  Mother-Church  herself.  It 
has  an  impressive  array  of  officials,  and  com 
mittees,  and  Boards  of  Direction,  of  Educa 
tion,  of  Lectureship,  and  so  on — geldings,  every 
one,  shadows,  spectres,  apparitions,  wax -fig 
ures:  she  is  supreme  over  them  all,  she  can 
abolish  them  when  she  will;  blow  them  out  as 
she  would  a  candle.  She  is  herself  the  Mother- 
Church.  Now  there  is  one  By-law  which  says 
that  the  Mother-Church 

"  shall  be  officially  controlled  by  no  other 
church.'' 

That  does  not  surprise  us — we  know  by  the 
rest  of  the  By-laws  that  that  is  a  quite  irrele 
vant  remark.  Yet  we  do  vaguely  and  hazily 


wonder  why  she  takes  the  trouble  to  say  it; 
why  she  wastes  the  words;  what  her  object  can 
be — seeing  that  that  emergency  has  been  in  so 
many,  many  ways,  and  so  effectively  and  dras 
tically  barred  off  and  made  impossible.  Then 
presently  the  object  begins  to  dawn  upon  us. 
That  is,  it  does  after  we  have  read  the  rest  of 
the  By-law  three  or  four  times,  wondering  and 
admiring  to  see  Mrs.  Eddy — Mrs.  Eddy — Mrs. 
Eddy,  of  all  persons — throwing  away  power! — 
making  a  fair  exchange — doing  a  fair  thing  for 
once — more,  an  almost  generous  thing!  Then 
we  look  it  through  yet  once  more — unsatisfied, 
a  little  suspicious — and  find  that  it  is  nothing 
but  a  sly,  thin  make-believe,  and  that  even  the 
very  title  of  it  is  a  sarcasm  and  embodies  a 
falsehood — "self"  government: 

"Local  Self -Government.  The  First  Church 
of  Christ,  Scientist,  in  Boston,  Massachusetts, 
shall  assume  no  official  control  of  other  churches 
of  this  denomination.  It  shall  be  officially  con 
trolled  by  no  other  church." 

It  has  a  most  pious  and  deceptive  give-and- 
take  air  of  perfect  fairness,  unselfishness,  mag- 


232 

nanimity — almost  godliness,  indeed.     But  it  is 
all  art. 

In  the  By-laws,  Mrs.  Eddy,  speaking  by  the 
mouth  of  her  other  self,  the  Mother  -  Church, 
proclaims  that  she  will  assume  no  official  con 
trol  of  other  churches — branch  churches.  We 
examine  the  other  By-laws,  and  they  answer 
some  important  questions  for  us: 

1.  What  is  a  branch  Church?     It  is  a  body 
of  Christian  Scientists,  organized  in  the  one 
and  only  permissible  way  —  by  a  member,  in 
good   standing,   of   the   Mother  -  Church,   and 
who  is  also  a  pupil  of  one  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
accredited  students.     That  is  to  say,  one  of 
her  properties.     No  other   can  do   it.     There 
are  other  indispensable  requisites;  what  are 
they? 

2.  The  new  Church  cannot  enter  upon  its 
functions  until  its  members  have  individually 
signed,  and  pledged  allegiance  to,  a  Creed  fur 
nished  by  Mrs.  Eddy. 

3.  They  are  obliged  to  study  her  books,  and 
order  their  lives  by  them.     And  they  must  read 
no  outside  religious  works. 

4.  They  must  sing  the  hymns  and  pray  the 


233 

prayers  provided  by  her,  and  use  no  others  in 
the  services,  except  by  her  permission. 

5.  They  cannot  have  preachers  and  pastors. 
Her  law. 

6.  In  their  Church  they  must  have  two  Read 
ers — a  man  and  a  woman. 

7.  They  must  read  the  services  framed  and 
appointed  by  her. 

8.  She — not   the   branch   Church — appoints 
those  Readers. 

9.  She — not  the  branch  Church — dismisses 
them  and  fills  the  vacancies. 

10.  She  can  do  this  without  consulting  the 
branch  Church,  and  without  explaining. 

11.  The  branch  Church  can  have  a  religious 
lecture  from  time  to  time.     By  applying  to 
Mrs.  Eddy.     There  is  no  other  way. 

12.  But  the  branch  Church  cannot  select  the 
lecturer.     Mrs.  Eddy  does  it. 

13.  The  branch  Church  pays  his  fee. 

14.  The  harnessing  of  all  Christian  Science 
wedding- teams,  members  of  the  branch  Church, 
must  be  done  by  duly  authorized  and  conse 
crated  Christian  Science  functionaries.    Her  fac 
tory  is  the  only  one  that  makes  and  licenses  them. 


234 

[15.  Nothing  is  said  about  christenings.  It 
is  inferable  from  this  that  a  Christian  Science 
child  is  born  a  Christian  Scientist  and  requires 
no  tinkering. 

[16.  Nothing  is  said  about  funerals.  It  is 
inferable,  then,  that  a  branch  Church  is  priv 
ileged  to  do  in  that  matter  as  it  may  choose.] 

To  sum  up.  Are  any  important  Church- 
functions  absent  from  the  list?  I  cannot  call 
any  to  mind.  Are  there  any  lacking  ones 
whose  exercise  could  make  the  branch  in  any 
noticeable  way  independent  of  the  Mother- 
Church? — even  in  any  trifling  degree?  I  think 
of  none.  If  the  .named  functions  were  abol 
ished  would  there  still  be  a  Church  left  ?  Would 
there  be  even  a  shadow  of  a  Church  left? 
Would  there  be  anything  at  all  left? — even  the 
bare  name  f 

Manifestly  not.  There  isn't  a  single  vital 
and  essential  Church-function  of  any  kind,  that 
is  not  named  in  the  list.  And  over  every  one 
of  them  the  Mother-Church  has  permanent  and 
unchallengeable  control,  upon  every  one  of 
them  Mrs.  Eddy  has  set  her  irremovable  grip. 
She  holds,  in  perpetuity,  autocratic  and  indis- 


235 

putable  sovereignty  and  control  over  every  branch 
Church  in  the  earth;  and  yet  says,  in  that  sugary, 
naive,  angel-beguiling  way  of  hers,  that  the 
Mother-Church 

"shall    assume   no    official   control   of   other 

churches  of  this  denomination." 

Whereas  in  truth  the  unmeddled-with  lib 
erties  of  a  branch  Christian  Science  Church  are 
but  very,  very  few  in  number,  and  are  these: 

1.  It  can  appoint  its  own  furnace  -  stoker, 
winters. 

2.  It  can  appoint  its  own  fan-distributors, 
summers. 

3.  It  can,  in  accordance  with  its  own  choice 
in  the  matter,  burn,  bury,  or  preserve  members 
who  are  pretending  to  be  dead — whereas  there 
is  no  such  thing  as  death. 

4.  It  can  take  up  a  collection. 

The  branch  Churches  have  no  important  lib 
erties,  none  that  give  them  an  important  voice 
in  their  own  affairs.  Those  are  all  locked  up, 
and  Mrs.  Eddy  has  the  key.  "  Local  Self-Go v- 
ernment "  is  a  large  name  and  sounds  well;  but 

16 


the  branch  Churches  have  no  more  of  it  than 
have  the  privates  in  the  King  of  Dahomey's 
army. 

"  MOTHER-CHURCH    UNIQUE  " 

Mrs.  Eddy,  with  an  envious  and  admiring 
eye  upon  the  solitary  and  rivalless  and  world- 
shadowing  majesty  of  St.  Peter's,  reveals  in  her 
By-laws  her  purpose  to  set  the  Mother-Church 
apart  by  itself  in  a  stately  seclusion  and  make 
it  duplicate  that  lone  sublimity  under  the  West 
ern  sky.  The  By-law  headed  "  Mother-Church 
Unique"  says — • 

"In  its  relation  to  other  Christian  Science 
churches,  the  Mother-Church  stands  alone. 

"  It  occupies  a  position  that  no  other  Church 
can  fill. 

"  Then  for  a  branch  Church  to  assume  such  po 
sition  would  be  disastrous  to  Christian  Science. 

"Therefore—" 

Therefore  no  branch  Church  is  allowed  to 
have  branches.  There  shall  be  no  Christian 
Science  St.  Peter's  in  the  earth  but  just  one — 
the  Mother-Church  in  Boston. 


237 


"NO  FIRST  MEMBERS" 


But  for  the  thoughtful  By-law  thus  entitled, 
every  Science  branch  in  the  earth  would  imi 
tate  the  Mother-Church  and  set  up  an  aristoc 
racy.  Every  little  group  of  ground-floor  Smiths 
and  Furgusons  and  Shadwells  and  Simpsons 
that  organized  a  branch  would  assume  that 
great  title,  of  "  First  Members,"  along  with  its 
vast  privileges  of  "  discussing  "  the  weather  and 
casting  blank  ballots,  and  soon  there  would  be 
such  a  locust-plague  of  them  burdening  the 
globe  that  the  title  would  lose  its  value  and 
have  to  be  abolished. 

But  where  business  and  glory  are  concerned, 
Mrs.  Eddy  thinks  of  everything,  and  so  she  did 
not  fail  to  take  care  of  her  Aborigines,  her  state 
ly  and  exclusive  One  Hundred,  her  college  of 
functionless  cardinals,  her  Sanhedrin  of  Priv 
ileged  Talkers  (Limited).  After  taking  away 
all  the  liberties  of  the  branch  Churches,  and  in 
the  same  breath  disclaiming  all  official  control 
over  their  affairs,  she  smites  them  on  the  mouth 
with  this — the  very  mouth  that  was  watering 
for  those  nobby  ground-floor  honors — 


238 

"  No  First  Members.  Branch  Churches  shall 
not  organize  with  First  Members,  that  special 
method  of  organization  being  adapted  to  the 
Mother-Church  alone." 

And  so,  first  members  being  prohibited,  we 
pierce  through  the  cloud  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  Eng 
lish  and  perceive  that  they  must  then  necessar 
ily  organize  with  Subsequent  Members.  There 
is  no  other  way.  It  will  occur  to  them  by-and- 
by  to  found  an  aristocracy  of  Early  Subsequent 
Members.  There  is  no  By-law  against  it. 

"THE." 

I  uncover  to  that  imperial  wordo  And  to  the 
mind,  too,  that  conceived  the  idea  of  seizing 
and  monopolizing  it  as  a  title.  I  believe  it  is 
Mrs.  Eddy's  dazzlingest  invention.  For  show, 
and  style,  and  grandeur,  and  thunder  and 
lightning  and  fireworks  it  outclasses  all  the  pre 
vious  inventions  of  man,  and  raises  the  limit  on 
the  Pope.  He  can  never  put  his  avid  hand  on 
that  word  of  words — it  is  pre-empted.  And 
copyrighted,  of  course.  It  lifts  the  Mother- 


239 

Church  away  up  in  the  sky,  and  fellowships  it 
with  the  rare  and  select  and  exclusive  little 
company  of  the  THE's  of  deathless  glory — per 
sons  and  things  whereof  history  and  the  ages 
could  furnish  only  single  examples,  not  two :  the 
Saviour,  the  Virgin,  the  Milky  Way,  the  Bible,  the 
Earth,  the  Equator,  the  Devil,  the  Missing  Link 
- — and  now  The  First  Church,  Scientist.  And 
by  clamor  of  edict  and  By-law  Mrs.  Eddy  gives 
personal  notice  to  all  branch  Scientist  Churches 
on  this  planet  to  leave  that  THE  alone. 

She  has  demonstrated  over  it  and  made  it 
sacred  to  the  Mother-Church : 

"  The  article  '  The '  must  not  be  used  before  the 
titles  of  branch  Churches — 

"  Nor  written  on  applications  for  membership 
in  naming  such  churches/' 

Those  are  the  terms.  There  can  and  will  be 
a  million  First  Churches  of  Christ,  Scientist, 
scattered  over  the  world,  in  a  million  towns  and 
villages  and  hamlets  and  cities,  and  each  may 
call  itself  (suppressing  the  article),  "First 
Church  of  Christ,  Scientist " — it  is  permissible, 


240 

and  no  harm ;  but  there  is  only  one  The  Church 
of  Christ,  Scientist,  and  there  will  never  be  an 
other.  And  whether  that  great  word  fall  in 
the  middle  of  a  sentence  or  at  the  beginning  of 
it,  it  must  always  have  its  capital  T. 

I  do  not  suppose  that  a  juvenile  passion  for 
fussy  little  worldly  shows  and  vanities  can  fur 
nish  a  match  to  this,  anywhere  in  the  history 
of  the  nursery.  Mrs.  Eddy  does  seem  to  be  a 
shade  fonder  of  little  special  distinctions  and 
pomps  than  is  usual  with  human  beings. 

She  instituted  that  immodest  "The"  with 
her  own  hand;  she  did  not  wait  for  somebody 
else  to  think  of  it. 

A   LIFE-TERM   MONOPOLY 

There  is  but  one  human  Pastor  in  the  whole 
Christian  Science  world;  she  reserves  that  ex 
alted  place  to  herself. 

A   PERPETUAL   ONE 

There  is  but  one  other  object  in  the  whole 
Christian  Science  world  honored  with  that  title 
and  holding  that  office :  it  is  her  book,  the  Annex 


241 

—permanent  Pastor  of  The  First  Churchy  and  of 
all  branch  Churches. 

With  her  own  hand  she  draughted  the  By 
laws  which  make  her  the  only  really  absolute 
sovereign  that  lives  to-day  in  Christendom.1 

She  does  not  allow  any  objectionable  pictures 
to  be  exhibited  in  the  room  where  her  book  is 
sold,  nor  any  indulgence  in  idle  gossip  there; 
and  from  the  general  look  of  that  By-law  I 
judge  that  a  lightsome  and  improper  person 
can  be  as  uncomfortable  in  that  place  as  he 
could  be  in  heaven. 

THE  SANCTUM  SANCTORUM  AND  SACRED  CHAIR 

In  a  room  in  The  First  Church  of  Christ, 
Scientist,  there  is  a  museum  of  objects  which 

1  Even  that  ideal  representative  of  irresponsible  power, 
the  General  of  the  Jesuits,  is  not  in  the  running  with 
Mrs.  Eddy.  He  is  authentically  described  as  follows: 

"The  Society  of  Jesus  has  really  but  one  head,  the  Gen 
eral.  He  must  be  a  professed  Jesuit  of  the  four  vows,  and  it 
is  the  professed  Jesuits  of  the  four  vows  only  who  take  part 
in  his  election ,  which  is  by  secret  ballot .  He  has  four '  assist 
ants  '  to  help  him,  and  an  '  admonisher,'  elected  in  the  same 
way  as  himself,  to  keep  him  in,  or,  if  need  be,  to  bring  him 
back  to  the  right  path.  The  electors  of  the  General  have 
the  right  of  deposing  him  if  he  is  guilty  of  a  serious  fault." 


242 

have  attained  to  holiness  through  contact  with 
Mrs.  Eddy — among  them  an  electrically  lighted 
oil-picture  of  a  chair  which  she  used  to  sit  in — 
and  disciples  from  all  about  the  world  go  softly 
in  there,  in  restricted  groups,  under  proper 
guard,  and  reverently  gaze  upon  those  relics. 
It  is  worship.  Mrs.  Eddy  could  stop  it  if  she 
was  not  fond  of  it,  for  her  sovereignty  over  that 
temple  is  supreme. 

The  fitting-up  of  that  place  as  a  shrine  is  not 
an  accident,  nor  a  casual,  un weighed  idea;  it  is 
imitated  from  age-old  religious  custom.  In 
Treves  the  pilgrim  reverently  gazes  upon  the 
Seamless  Robe,  and  humbly  worships;  and  does 
the  same  in  that  other  continental  church 
where  they  keep  a  duplicate;  and  does  likewise 
in  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  in  Jeru 
salem,  where  memorials  of  the  Crucifixion  are 
preserved;  and  now,  by  good  fortune  we  have 
our  Holy  Chair  and  things,  and  a  market  for  our 
adorations  nearer  home. 

But  is  there  not  a  detail  that  is  new,  fresh, 
original?  Yes,  whatever  old  thing  Mrs.  Eddy 
touches  gets  something  new  by  the  contact — 
something  not  thought  of  before  by  any  one — 


243 

something  original,  all  her  own,  and  copyright- 
able.  The  new  feature  is  self  worship — exhib 
ited  in  permitting  this  shrine  to  be  installed 
during  her  lifetime,  and  winking  her  sacred  eye 
at  it. 

A  prominent  Christian  Scientist  has  assured 
me  that  the  Scientists  do  not  worship  Mrs.  Eddy, 
and  I  think  it  likely  that  there  may  be  five  or 
six  of  the  cult  in  the  world  who  do  not  worship 
her;  but  she  herself  is  certainly  not  of  that  com 
pany.  Any  healthy-minded  person  who  will 
examine  Mrs.  Eddy's  little  Autobiography  and 
the  Manual  of  By-laws  written  by  her  will  be 
convinced  that  she  worships  herself;  and  that 
she  brings  to  this  service  a  fervor  of  devotion 
surpassing  even  that  which  she  formerly  laid  at 
the  feet  of  the  Dollar,  and  equalling  any  which 
rises  to  the  Throne  of  Grace  from  any  quarter. 

I  think  this  is  as  good  a  place  as  any  to  salve 
a  hurt  which  I  was  the  means  of  inflicting  upon 
a  Christian  Scientist  lately.  The  first  third  of 
this  book  was  written  in  1899  in  Vienna.  Until 
last  summer  I  had  supposed  that  that  third 
had  been  printed  in  a  book  which  I  published 
about  a  year  later — a  hap  which  had  not  hap- 


244 

pened.  I  then  sent  the  chapters  composing  it 
to  the  North  American  Review,  but  failed,  in  one 
instance,  to  date  them.  And  so,  in  an  undated 
chapter  I  said  a  lady  told  me  "last  night"  so 
and  so.  There  was  nothing  to  indicate  to  the 
reader  that  that  "  last  night "  was  several  years 
old,  therefore  the  phrase  seemed  to  refer  to  a 
night  of  very  recent  date.  What  the  lady  had 
told  me  was,  that  in  a  part  of  the  Mother-Church 
in  Boston  she  had  seen  Scientists  worshipping  a 
portrait  of  Mrs.  Eddy  before  which  a  light  was 
kept  constantly  burning. 

A  Scientist  came  to  me  and  wished  me  to  re 
tract  that  "untruth."  He  said  there  was  no 
such  portrait,  and  that  if  I  wanted  to  be  sure  of 
it  I  could  go  to  Boston  and  see  for  myself.  I 
explained  that  my  "  last  night "  meant  a  good 
while  ago;  that  I  did  not  doubt  his  assertion 
that  there  was  no  such  portrait  there  now,  but 
that  I  should  continue  to  believe  it  had  been 
there  at  the  time  of  the  lady's  visit  until  she 
should  retract  her  statement  herself.  I  was  at 
no  time  vouching  for  the  truth  of  the  remark, 
nevertheless  I  considered  it  worth  par. 

And  yet  I  am  sorry  the  lady  told  me,  since  a 


245 

wound  which  brings  me  no  happiness  has  re 
sulted.  I  am  most  willing  to  apply  such  salve 
as  I  can.  The  best  way  to  set  the  matter  right 
and  make  everything  pleasant  and  agreeable  all 
around  will  be  to  print  in  this  place  a  descrip 
tion  of  the  shrine  as  it  appeared  to  a  recent  vis 
itor,  Mr.  Frederick  W.  Peabody,  of  Boston.  I 
will  copy  his  newspaper  account,  and  the  reader 
will  see  that  Mrs.  Eddy's  portrait  is  not  there 
now: 

"We  lately  stood  on  the  threshold  of  the 
Holy  of  Holies  of  the  Mother-Church,  and  with 
a  crowd  of  worshippers  patiently  waited  for  ad 
mittance  to  the  hallowed  precincts  of  the 
'Mother's  Room/  Over  the  doorway  was  a 
sign  informing  us  that  but  four  persons  at  a 
time  would  be  admitted;  that  they  would  be 
permitted  to  remain  but  five  minutes  only,  and 
would  please  retire  from  the  '  Mother's  Room' 
at  the  ringing  of  the  bell.  Entering  with  three 
of  the  faithful,  we  looked  with  profane  eyes 
upon  the  consecrated  furnishings.  A  show- 
woman  in  attendance  monotonously  announced 
the  character  of  the  different  appointments. 
Set  in  a  recess  of  the  wall  and  illumined  with 


246 

electric  light  was  an  oil-painting  the  show- 
woman  seriously  declared  to  be  a  lifelike  and 
realistic  picture  of  the  Chair  in  which  the 
Mother  sat  when  she  composed  her  'inspired' 
work.  It  was  a  picture  of  an  old-fashioned, 
country,  hair-cloth  rocking-chair,  and  an  ex 
ceedingly  commonplace-looking  table  with  a 
pile  of  manuscript,  an  ink-bottle,  and  pen  con 
spicuously  upon  it.  On  the  floor  were  sheets 
of  manuscript.  'The  mantel-piece  is  of  pure 
onyx,'  continued  the  show- woman,  'and  the 
beehive  upon  the  window-sill  is  made  from  one 
solid  block  of  onyx;  the  rug  is  made  of  a  hun 
dred  breasts  of  eider-down  ducks,  and  the  toilet- 
room  you  see  in  the  corner  is  of  the  latest  de 
sign,  with  gold-plated  drain-pipes;  the  painted 
windows  are  from  the  Mother's  poem,  "Christ 
and  Christmas,"  and  that  case  contains  com 
plete  copies  of  all  the  Mother's  books.'  The 
chairs  upon  which  the  sacred  person  of  the 
Mother  had  reposed  were  protected  from  sacri 
legious  touch  by  a  broad  band  of  satin  ribbon. 
My  companions  expressed  their  admiration  in 
subdued  and  reverent  tones,  and  at  the  tinkling 
of  the  bell  we  reverently  tiptoed  out  of  the 
room  to  admit  another  delegation  of  the  pa 
tient  waiters  at  the  door." 


247 

Now,  then,  I  hope  the  wound  is  healed.  I 
am  willing  to  relinquish  the  portrait,  and  com 
promise  on  the  Chair.  At  the  same  time,  if  I 
were  going  to  worship  either,  I  should  not 
choose  the  Chair. 

As  a  picturesquely  and  persistently  interest 
ing  personage,  there  is  no  mate  to  Mrs.  Eddy, 
the  accepted  Equal  of  the  Saviour.  But  some 
of  her  tastes  are  so  different  from  His!  I  find 
it  quite  impossible  to  imagine  Him,  in  life, 
standing  sponsor  for  that  museum  there,  and 
taking  pleasure  in  its  sumptuous  shows.  I  be 
lieve  He  would  put  that  Chair  in  the  fire,  and 
the  bell  along  with  it;  and  I  think  He  would 
make  the  show-woman  go  away.  I  think  He 
would  break  those  electric  bulbs,  and  the  "man 
tel-piece  of  pure  onyx,"  and  say  reproachful 
things  about  the  golden  drain-pipes  of  the  lava 
tory,  and  give  the  costly  rug  of  duck-breasts  to 
the  poor,  and  sever  the  satin  ribbon  and  invite 
the  weary  to  rest  and  ease  their  aches  in  the  con 
secrated  chairs.  What  He  would  do  with  the 
painted  windows  we  can  better  conjecture  when 
we  come  presently  to  examine  their  peculiar 
ities. 


248 

/ 

THE    CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE    PASTOR-UNIVERSAL 

When  Mrs.  Eddy  turned  the  pastors  out  of 
all  the  Christian  Science  churches  and  abolished 
the  office  for  all  time — as  far  as  human  occu 
pancy  is  concerned — she  appointed  the  Holy 
Ghost  to  fill  their  place.  If  this  language  be 
blasphemous,  I  did  not  invent  the  blasphemy, 
I  am  merely  stating  a  fact.  I  will  quote  from 
page  227  of  Science  and  Health  (edition  1899), 
as  a  first  step  towards  an  explanation  of  this 
startling  matter — a  passage  which  sets  forth 
and  classifies  the  Christian  Science  Trinity: 

"  Life,  Truth,  and  Love  constitute  the  triune 
God,  or  triply  divine  Principle.  They  repre 
sent  a  trinity  in  unity,  three  in  one — the  same 
in  essence,  though  multiform  in  office :  God  the 
Father;  Christ  the  type  of  Sonship;  Divine 
Science,  or  the  Holy  Comforter.  .  .  . 

"  The  Holy  Ghost,  or  Spirit,  reveals  this  triune 
Principle,  and  (the  Holy  Ghost)  is  expressed  in 
Divine  Science,  which  is  the  Comforter,  leading 
into  all  Truth,  and  revealing  the  divine  Prin 
ciple  of  the  universe — universal  and  perpetual 
harmony.'7 


249 

I  will  cite  another  passage.  Speaking  of 
Jesus — 

"  His  students  then  received  the  Holy  Ghost. 
By  this  is  meant,  that  by  all  they  had  witnessed 
and  suffered  they  were  roused  to  an  enlarged 
understanding  of  Divine  Science,  even  to  the 
spiritual  interpretation  . . .  of  His  teachings,"  etc. 

Also,  page  579,  in  the  chapter  called  the 
Glossary: 

"HOLY  GHOST.  Divine  Science;  the  devel 
opments  of  Life,  Truth,  and  Love." 

The  Holy  Ghost  reveals  the  massed  spirit  of 
the  fused  trinity;  this  massed  spirit  is  expressed 
in  Divine  Science,  and  is  the  Comforter;  Divine 
Science  conveys  to  men  the  "  spiritual  interpre 
tation  "  of  the  Saviour's  teachings.  That  seems 
to  be  the  meaning  of  the  quoted  passages. 

Divine  Science  is  Christian  Science ;  the  book 
Science  and  Health  is  a  "  revelation  "  of  the  whole 
spirit  of  the  Trinity,  and  is  therefore  "  The  Holy 
Ghost" ;  it  conveys  to  men  the  "spiritual  inter- 


pr elation"  of  the  Bible's  teachings,  and  there 
fore  is  "the  Comforter" 

I  do  not  find  this  analyzing  work  easy,  I 
would  rather  saw  wood ;  and  a  person  can  never 
tell  whether  he  has  added  up  a  Science  and 
Health  sum  right  or  not,  anyway,  after  all  his 
trouble.  Neither  can  he  easily  find  out  whether 
the  texts  are  still  on  the  market  or  have  been 
discarded  from  the  Book;  for  two  hundred  and 
fifty-eight  editions  of  it  have  been  issued,  and 
no  two  editions  seem  to  be  alike.  The  annual 
changes — in  technical  terminology;  in  matter 
and  wording;  in  transpositions  of  chapters  and 
verses;  in  leaving  out  old  chapters  and  verses 
and  putting  in  new  ones — seem  to  be  next  to 
innumerable,  and  as  there  is  no  index,  there  is 
no  way  to  find  a  thing  one  wants  without  read 
ing  the  book  through.  If  ever  I  inspire  a  Bible- 
Annex  I  will  not  rush  at  it  in  a  half-digested, 
helter-skelter  way  and  have  to  put  in  thirty- 
eight  years  trying  to  get  some  of  it  the  way  I 
want  it,  I  will  sit  down  and  think  it  out  and 
know  what  it  is  I  want  to  say  before  I  begin. 
An  inspirer  cannot  inspire  for  Mrs.  Eddy  and 
keep  his  reputation.  I  have  never  seen  such 


25* 

slipshod  work,  bar  the  ten  that  interpreted  for 
the  home  market  the  "sell  all  thou  hast."  I 
have  quoted  one  "  spiritual "  rendering  of  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  I  have  seen  one  other  one,  and 
am  told  there  are  five  more.1  Yet  the  inspirer 
of  Mrs.  Eddy  the  new  Infallible  casts  a  compla 
cent  critical  stone  at  the  other  Infallible  for  being 
unable  to  make  up  its  mind  about  such  things. 
Science  and  Health,  edition  1899,  Pa£e  33 : 

"  The  decisions,  by  vote  of  Church  Councils, 
as  to  what  should  and  should  not  be  considered 
Holy  Writ,  the  manifest  mistakes  in  the  ancient 
versions :  the  thirty  thousand  different  readings 
in  the  Old  Testament  and  the  three  hundred 
thousand  in  the  New — these  facts  show  how  a 
mortal  and  material  sense  stole  into  the  divine 
record,  darkening,  to  some  extent,  the  inspired 
pages  with  its  own  hue.'1 

To  some  extent,  yes  —  speaking  cautiously. 
But  it  is  nothing,  really  nothing;  Mrs.  Eddy  is 
only  a  little  way  behind,  and  if  her  inspirer 
lives  to  get  her  Annex  to  suit  him  that  Catholic 

1  See  a  second  rendering  in  Appendix.     (Lord's  Prayer.) 

— M.  T. 
17 


252 

record  will  have  to  "go  'way  back  and  set 
down, ' '  as  the  ballad  says.  Listen  to  the  boast 
ful  song  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  organ,  the  Christian 
Science  Journal  for  March,  1902,  about  that 
year's  revamping  and  half -soling  of  Science  and 
Health,  whose  official  name  is  the  Holy  Ghost, 
the  Comforter,  and  who  is  now  the  Official 
Pastor,  and  Infallible  and  Unerring  Guide  of 
every  Christian  Science  church  in  the  two 
hemispheres,  hear  Simple  Simon  that  met  the 
pieman  brag  of  the  Infallible's  fallibility: 

"Throughout  the  entire  book  the  verbal 
changes  are  so  numerous  as  to  indicate  the  vast 
amount  of  time  and  labor  Mrs.  Eddy  has  de 
voted  to  this  revision.  The  time  and  labor 
thus  bestowed  is  relatively  as  great  as  that  of 
the  committee  who  revised  the  Bible.  .  .  .  Thus 
we  have  additional  evidence  of  the  herculean  ef 
forts  our  beloved  Leader  has  made  and  is  con 
stantly  making  for  the  promulgation  of  Truth 
and  the  furtherance  of  her  divinely  bestowed 
mission,"  etc. 

It  is  a  steady  job.  I  could  help  inspire  if  de 
sired;  I  am  not  doing  much  now,  and  would 


THE     FIRST    CHURCH    OF    CHRIST,    SCIENTIST,    CENTRAL    PARK 
WEST   AND    Q6TH    STREET,  NEW    YORK 


253 

work  for  half-price,  and  should  not  object  to 
the  country. 

PRICE    OF   THE    PASTOR-UNIVERSAL 

The  price  of  the  Pastor-Universal,  Science 
and  Health,  called  in  Science  literature  the  Com 
forter — and  by  that  other  sacred  Name — is 
three  dollars  in  cloth,  as  heretofore,  six  when  it 
is  finely  bound,  and  shaped  to  imitate  the  Testa 
ment,  and  is  broken  into  verses.  Margin  of 
profit  above  cost  of  manufacture,  from  five 
hundred  to  seven  hundred  per  cent.,  as  already 
noted.  In  the  profane  subscription-trade,  it 
costs  the  publisher  heavily  to  canvass  a  three- 
dollar  book ;  he  must  pay  the  general  agent  sixty 
per  cent,  commission — that  is  to  say,  one  dollar 
and  eighty  cents.  Mrs.  Eddy  escapes  this  blister 
ing  tax,  because  she  owns  the  Christian  Science 
canvasser,  and  can  compel  him  to  work  for  noth 
ing.  Read  the  following  command — not  request 
— fulminated  by  Mrs.  Eddy,  over  her  signature, 
in  the  Christian  Science  Journal  for  March,  1897, 
and  quoted  by  Mr.  Peabody  in  his  book.  The 
book  referred  to  is  Science  and  Health: 


254 

"  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  all  Christian  Scientists 
to  circulate  and  to  sell  as  many  of  these  books  as 
they  can." 

That  is  flung  at  all  the  elect,  everywhere 
that  the  sun  shines,  but  no  penalty  is  shaken 
over  their  heads  to  scare  them.  The  same 
command  was  issued  to  the  members  (num 
bering  to  -  day  twenty  -  five  thousand)  of  The 
Mother-Church,  also,  but  with  it  went  a  threat, 
of  the  infliction,  in  case  of  disobedience,  of 
the  most  dreaded  punishment  that  has  a  place 
in  the  Church's  list  of  penalties  for  trans 
gressions  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  edicts  —  excommuni 
cation  : 

"//  a  member  of  The  First  Church  of  Christ, 
Scientist,  shall  fail  to  obey  this  injunction,  it  will 
render  him  liable  to  lose  his  membership  in  this 
Church.  MARY  BAKER  EDDY." 

It  is  the  spirit  of  the  Spanish  Inquisition. 

None  but  accepted  and  well-established  gods 
can  venture  an  affront  like  that  and  do  it  with 
confidence.  But  the  human  race  will  take  any- 


255 

thing  from  that  class.  Mrs.  Eddy  knows  the 
human  race;  knows  it  better  than  any  mere 
human  being  has  known  it  in  a  thousand  cen 
turies.  My  confidence  in  her  human-beingship 
is  getting  shaken,  my  confidence  in  her  godship 
is  stiffening. 

SEVEN    HUNDRED    PER    CENT. 

A  Scientist  out  West  has  visited  a  book 
seller — with  intent  to  find  fault  with  me — and 
has  brought  away  the  information  that  the 
price  at  which  Mrs.  Eddy  sells  Science  and 
Health  is  not  an  unusually  high  one  for  the  size 
and  make  of  the  book.  That  is  true.  But  in 
the  book- trade — that  profit-devourer  unknown 
to  Mrs.  Eddy's  book — a  three-dollar  book  that 
is  made  for  thirty-five  or  forty  cents  in  large 
editions  is  put  at  three  dollars  because  the  pub 
lisher  has  to  pay  author,  middleman,  and  ad 
vertising,  and  if  the  price  were  much  below  three 
the  profit  accruing  would  not  pay  him  fairly 
for  his  time  and  labor.  At  the  same  time,  if  he 
could  get  ten  dollars  for  the  book  he  would  take 
it,  and  his  morals  would  not  fall  under  criticism. 


256 

But  if  he  were  an  inspired  person  commis 
sioned  by  the  Deity  to  receive  and  print  and 
spread  broadcast  among  sorrowing  and  suffer 
ing  and  poor  men  a  precious  message  of  heal 
ing  and  cheer  and  salvation,  he  would  have  to 
do  as  Bible  Societies  do — sell  the  book  at  a 
pinched  margin  above  cost  to  such  as  could 
pay,  and  give  it  free  to  all  that  couldn't;  and 
his  name  would  be  praised.  But  if  he  sold  it 
at  seven  hundred  per  cent,  profit  and  put  the 
money  in  his  pocket,  his  name  would  be  mocked 
and  derided.  Just  as  Mrs.  Eddy's  is.  And  most 
justifiably,  as  it  seems  to  me. 

The  complete  Bible  contains  one  million 
words.  The  New  Testament  by  itself  contains 
two  hundred  and  forty  thousand  words. 

My  '84  edition  of  Science  and  Health  con 
tains  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand 
words — just  half  as  many  as  the  New  Testa 
ment. 

Science  and  Health  has  since  been  so  inflated 
by  later  inspirations  that  the  1902  edition  con 
tains  one  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  words — 
not  counting  the  thirty  thousand  at  the  back, 
devoted  by  Mrs.  Eddy  to  advertising  the  book's 


257 

healing  abilities — and  the  inspiring  continues 
right  along. 

If  you  have  a  book  whose  market  is  so  sure 
and  so  great  that  you  can  give  a  printer  an 
everlasting  order  for  thirty  or  *orty  or  fifty 
thousand  copies  a  year  he  will  furnish  them  at 
a  cheap  rate,  because  whenever  there  is  a  slack 
time  in  his  press-room  and  bindery  he  can  fill 
the  idle  intervals  on  your  book  and  be  making 
something  instead  of  losing.  That  is  the  kind 
of  contract  that  can  be  let  on  Science  and 
Health  every  year.  I  am  obliged  to  doubt 
that  the  three-dollar  Science  and  Health  costs 
Mrs.  Eddy  above  fifteen  cents,  or  that  the  six- 
dollar  copy  costs  her  above  eighty  cents.  I 
feel  quite  sure  that  the  average  profit  to  her  on 
these  books,  above  cost  of  manufacture,  is  all 
of  seven  hundred  per  cent. 

Every  proper  Christian  Scientist  has  to  buy 
and  own  (and  canvass  for)  Science  and  Health 
(one  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  words),  and 
he  must  also  own  a  Bible  (one  million  words). 
He  can  buy  the  one  for  from  three  to  six  dollars, 
and  the  other  for  fifteen  cents.  Or,  if  three 
dollars  is  all  the  money  he  has,  he  can  get  his 


258 

Bible  for  nothing.  When  the  Supreme  Being 
disseminates  a  saving  Message  through  unin 
spired  agents — the  New  Testament,  for  instance 
— it  can  be  done  for  five  cents  a  copy ;  but  when 
He  sends  or:,  containing  only  two-thirds  as 
many  words  through  the  shop  of  a  Divine  Per 
sonage,  it  costs  sixty  times  as  much.  I  think 
that  in  matters  of  such  importance  it  is  bad 
economy  to  employ  a  wild-cat  agency. 

Here  are  some  figures  which  are  perfect 
ly  authentic,  and  which  seem  to  justify  my 
opinion: 

"These  [Bible]  societies,  inspired  only  by  a 
sense  of  religious  duty,  are  issuing  the  Bible  at 
a  price  so  small  that  they  have  made  it  the 
cheapest  book  printed.  For  example,  the  Amer 
ican  Bible  Society  offers  an  edition  of  the  whole 
Bible  as  low  as  fifteen  cents  and  the  New  Testa 
ment  at  five  cents,  and  the  British  Society  at  six 
pence  and  one  penny,  respectively.  These  low 
prices,  made  possible  by  their  policy  of  selling 
the  books  at  cost  or  below  cost,"  etc. — New  York 
Sun,  February  25,  1903. 


CHAPTER    IX 

WE  may  now  make  a  final  footing -up  of 
Mrs.  Eddy,  and  see  what  she  is,  in  the  fulness 
of  her  powers.  She  is 

The  Massachusetts  Metaphysical  College; 

Pastor  Emeritus; 

President ; 

Board  of  Directors; 

Board  of  Education; 

Board  of  Lectureships; 

Future  Board  of  Trustees; 

Proprietor  of  the  Publishing  -  House  and 
Periodicals; 

Treasurer; 

Clerk; 

Proprietor  of  the  Teachers; 

Proprietor  of  the  Lecturers; 

Proprietor  of  the  Missionaries; 

Proprietor  of  the  Readers; 

Dictator  of  the  Services:  sole  Voice  of  the 
Pulpit; 


260 

Proprietor  of  the  Sanhedrin; 

Sole  Proprietor  of  the  Creed.     (Copyrighted.) 

Indisputable  Autocrat  of  the  Branch 
Churches,  with  their  life  and  death  in  her 
hands; 

Sole  Thinker  for  The  First  Church  (and  the 
others) ; 

Sole  and  Infallible  Expounder  of  Doctrine, 
in  life  and  in  death; 

Sole  permissible  Discoverer,  Denouncer, 
Judge,  and  Executioner  of  Ostensible  Hyp 
notists; 

Fifty-handed  God  of  Excommunication — 
with  a  thunderbolt  in  every  hand; 

Appointer  and  Installer  of  the  Pastor  of  all 
the  Churches— the  Perpetual  Pastor-Universal, 
Science  and  Health,  "the  Comforter." 


CHAPTER     X 

THERE  she  stands — painted  by  herself.  No 
witness  but  herself  has  been  allowed  to  testify. 
She  stands  there  painted  by  her  acts,  and  deco 
rated  by  her  words.  When  she  talks,  she  has 
only  a  decorative  value  as  a  witness,  either  for 
or  against  herself,  for  she  deals  mainly  in  unsup 
ported  assertion;  and  in  the  rare  cases  where 
she  puts  forward  a  verifiable  fact  she  gets  out 
of  it  a  meaning  which  it  refuses  to  furnish  to 
anybody  else.  Also,  when  she  talks,  she  is  un 
stable;  she  wanders,  she  is  incurably  inconsist 
ent;  what  she  says  to-day  she  contradicts  to 
morrow. 

But  her  acts  are  consistent.  They  are  al 
ways  faithful  to  her,  they  never  misinterpret 
her,  they  are  a  mirror  which  always  reflects  her 
exactly,  precisely,  minutely,  unerringly,  and 
always  the  same,  to  date,  with  only  those  pro 
gressive  little  natural  changes  in  stature,  dress, 
complexion,  mood,  and  carriage  that  mark — 


262 


exteriorly — the  march  of  the  years  and  record 
the  accumulations  of  experience,  while — in 
teriorly — through  all  this  steady  drift  of  evo 
lution  the  one  essential  detail,  the  commanding 
detail,  the  master  detail  of  the  make-up  re 
mains  as  it  was  in  the  beginning,  suffers  no 
change  and  can  suffer  none;  the  basis  of  the 
character;  the  temperament,  the  disposition, 
that  indestructible  iron  framework  upon  which 
the  character  is  built,  and  whose  shape  it  must 
take,  and  keep,  throughout  life.  We  call  it  a 
person's  nature. 

The  man  who  is  born  stingy  can  be  taught 
to  give  liberally — with  his  hands;  but  not  with 
his  heart.  The  man  born  kind  and  compas 
sionate  can  have  that  disposition  crushed  down 
out  of  sight  by  embittering  experience ;  but  if  it 
were  an  organ  the  post-mortem  would  find  it 
still  in  his  corpse.  The  man  born  ambitious  of 
power  and  glory  may  live  long  without  finding 
it  out,  but  when  the  opportunity  comes  he  will 
know,  will  strike  for  the  largest  thing  within 
the  limit  of  his  chances  at  the  time — constable, 
perhaps — and  will  be  glad  and  proud  when  he 
gets  it,  and  will  write  home  about  it.  But  he 


263 

will  not  stop  with  that  start;  his  appetite  will 
come  again;  and  by-and-by  again,  and  yet 
again ;  and  when  he  has  climbed  to  police  com 
missioner  it  will  at  last  begin  to  dawn  upon 
him  that  what  his  Napoleon  soul  wants  and 
was  born  for  is  something  away  higher  up— 
he  does  not  quite  know  what,  but  Circumstance 
and  Opportunity  will  indicate  the  direction  and 
he  will  cut  a  road  through  and  find  out. 

I  think  Mrs.  Eddy  was  born  with  a  far-seeing 
business-eye,  but  did  not  know  it;  and  with  a 
great  organizing  and  executive  talent,  and  did 
not  know  it;  and  with  a  large  appetite  for 
power  and  distinction,  and  did  not  know  it.  I 
think  the  reason  that  her  make  did  not  show 
up  until  middle  life  was  that  she  had  General 
Grant's  luck — Circumstance  and  Opportunity 
did  not  come  her  way  when  she  was  younger. 
The  qualities  that  were  born  in  her  had  to  wait 
for  circumstance  and  opportunity — but  they 
were  there:  they  were  there  to  stay,  whether 
they  ever  got  a  chance  to  fructify  or  not.  If 
they  had  come  early,  they  would  have  found 
her  ready  and  competent.  And  they — not  she 
— would  have  determined  what  they  would  set 


264 

her  at  and  what  they  would  make  of  her.  If 
they  had  elected  to  commission  her  as  second- 
assistant  cook  in  a  bankrupt  boarding-house,  I 
know  the  rest  of  it — I  know  what  would  have 
happened.  She  would  have  owned  the  board 
ing-house  within  six  months;  she  would  have 
had  the  late  proprietor  on  salary  and  hump 
ing  himself,  as  the  worldly  say ;  she  would  have 
had  that  boarding-house  spewing  money  like  a 
mint;  she  would  have  worked  the  servants  and 
the  late  landlord  up  to  the  limit ;  she  would  have 
squeezed  the  boarders  till  they  wailed,  and  by 
some  mysterious  quality  born  in  her  she  would 
have  kept  the  affections  of  certain  of  the  lot 
whose  love  and  esteem  she  valued,  and  flung 
the  others  down  the  back  area;  in  two  years  she 
would  own  all  the  boarding-houses  in  the  town, 
in  five  all  the  boarding-houses  in  the  State,  in 
twenty  all  the  hotels  in  America,  in  forty  all  the 
hotels  on  the  planet,  and  would  sit  at  home  with 
her  finger  on  a  button  and  govern  the  whole 
combination  as  easily  as  a  bench-manager  gov 
erns  a  dog-show. 

It  would  be  a  grand  thing  to  see,  and  I  feel  a 
kind  of  disappointment — but  never  mind,   a 


265 

religion  is  better  and  larger;  and  there  is  more 
to  it.  And  I  have  not  been  steeping  myself  in 
Christian  Science  all  these  weeks  without  find 
ing  out  that  the  one  sensible  thing  to  do  with  a 
disappointment  is  to  put  it  out  of  your  mind 
and  think  of  something  cheerfuler. 

We  outsiders  cannot  conceive  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
Christian  Science  Religion  as  being  a  sudden 
and  miraculous  birth,  but  only  as  a  growth  from 
a  seed  planted  by  circumstances,  and  developed 
stage  by  stage  by  command  and  compulsion  of 
the  same  force.  What  the  stages  were  we  can 
not  know,  but  are  privileged  to  guess.  She 
may  have  gotten  the  mental-healing  idea  from 
Quimby — it  had  been  experimented  with  for 
ages,  and  was  no  one's  special  property.  [For 
the  present,  for  convenience'  sake,  let  us  pro 
ceed  upon  the  hypothesis  that  that  was  all  she 
got  of  him,  and  that  she  put  up  the  rest  of  the 
assets  herself.  This  will  strain  us,  but  let  us 
try  it.]  In  each  and  all  its  forms  and  under  all 
its  many  names,  mental  healing  had  had  lim 
its,  always,  and  they  were  rather  narrow  ones- 
Mrs.  Eddy,  let  us  imagine,  removed  the  fence, 
abolished  the  frontiers.  Not  by  expanding 


266 

mental-healing,  but  by  absorbing  its  small  bulk 
into  the  vaster  bulk  of  Christian  Science — 
Divine  Science,  The  Holy  Ghost,  the  Comforter 
— which  was  a  quite  different  and  sublimer 
force,  and  one  which  had  long  lain  dormant  and 
unemployed. 

The  Christian  Scientist  believes  that  the 
Spirit  of  God  (life  and  love)  pervades  the  uni 
verse  like  an  atmosphere ;  that  whoso  will  study 
Science  and  Health  can  get  from  it  the  secret  of 
how  to  inhale  that  transforming  air;  that  to 
breathe  it  is  to  be  made  new;  that  from  the 
new  man  all  sorrow,  all  care,  all  miseries  of  the 
mind  vanish  away,  for  that  only  peace,  content 
ment  and  measureless  joy  can  live  in  that  divine 
fluid;  that  it  purifies  the  body  from  disease, 
which  is  a  vicious  creation  of  the  gross  human 
mind,  and  cannot  continue  to  exist  in  the  pres 
ence  of  the  Immortal  Mind,  the  renewing  Spirit 
of  God. 

The  Scientist  finds  this  reasonable,  natural, 
and  not  harder  to  believe  than  that  the  disease- 
germ,  a  creature  of  darkness,  perishes  when  ex 
posed  to  the  light  of  the  great  sun — a  new  rev 
elation  of  profane  science  which  no  one  doubts. 


267 

He  reminds  us  that  the  actinic  ray,  shining 
upon  lupus,  cures  it — a  horrible  disease  which 
was  incurable  fifteen  years  ago,  and  had  been 
incurable  for  ten  million  years  before;  that  this 
wonder,  unbelievable  by  the  physicians  at  first, 
is  believed  by  them  now ;  and  so  he  is  tranquilly 
confident  that  the  time  is  coming  when  the 
world  will  be  educated  up  to  a  point  where  it 
will  comprehend  and  grant  that  the  light  of  the 
Spirit  of  God,  shining  unobstructed  upon  the 
soul,  is  an  actinic  ray  which  can  purge  both 
mind  and  body  from  disease  and  set  them  free 
and  make  them  whole. 

It  is  apparent,  then,  that  in  Christian  Science 
it  is  not  one  man's  mind  acting  upon  another 
man's  mind  that  heals;  that  it  is  solely  the 
Spirit  of  God  that  heals;  that  the  healer's  mind 
performs  no  office  but  to  convey  that  force  to 
the  patient;  that  it  is  merely  the  wire  which 
carries  the  electric  fluid,  so  to  speak,  and  de 
livers  the  message.  Therefore,  if  these  things 
be  true,  mental-healing  and  Science-healing  are 
separate  and  distinct  processes,  and  no  kinship 
exists  between  them. 

To  heal  the  body  of  its  ills  and  pains  is  a 

z8 


268 

mighty  benefaction,  but  in  our  day  our  physi 
cians  and  surgeons  work  a  thousand  miracles — 
prodigies  which  would  have  ranked  as  miracles 
fifty  years  ago — and  they  have  so  greatly  ex 
tended  their  domination  over  disease  that  we 
feel  so  well  protected  that  we  are  able  to  look 
with  a  good  deal  of  composure  and  absence  of 
hysterics  upon  the  claims  of  new  competitors 
in  that  field. 

But  there  is  a  mightier  benefaction  than  the 
healing  of  the  body,  and  that  is  the  healing  of 
the  spirit — which  is  Christian  Science's  other 
claim.  So  far  as  I  know,  so  far  as  I  can  find 
out,  it  makes  it  good.  Personally  I  have  not 
known  a  Scientist  who  did  not  seem  serene, 
contented,  unharassed.  I  have  not  found  an 
outsider  whose  observation  of  Scientists  fur 
nished  him  a  view  that  differed  from  my  own. 
Buoyant  spirits,  comfort  of  mind,  freedom 
from  care — these  happinesses  we  all  have,  at 
intervals;  but  in  the  spaces  between,  dear  me, 
the  black  hours!  They  have  put  a  curse  upon 
the  life  of  every  human  being  I  have  ever  known, 
young  or  old.  I  concede  not  a  single  excep 
tion.  Unless  it  might  be  those  Scientists  just 


referred  to.  They  may  have  been  playing  a 
part  with  me ;  I  hope  they  were  not,  and  I  be 
lieve  they  were  not. 

Time  will  test  the  Science's  claim.  If  time 
shall  make  it  good ;  if  time  shall  prove  that  the 
Science  can  heal  the  persecuted  spirit  of  man 
and  banish  its  troubles  and  keep  it  serene  and 
sunny  and  content — why,  then  Mrs.  Fddy  will 
have  a  monument  that  will  reach  above  the 
clouds.  For  if  she  did  not  hit  upon  that  im 
perial  idea  and  evolve  it  and  deliver  it,  its  dis 
coverer  can  never  be  identified  with  certainty, 
now,  I  think.  It  is  the  giant  feature,  it  is  the 
sun  that  rides  in  the  zenith  of  Christian  Science ; 
the  auxiliary  features  are  of  minor  consequence. 
[Let  us  still  leave  the  large  "if"  aside,  for  the 
present,  and  proceed  as  if  it  had  no  existence.] 

It  is  not  supposable  that  Mrs.  Eddy  realized, 
at  first,  the  size  of  her  plunder.  (No,  find — 
that  is  the  word;  she  did  not  realize  the  size  of 
her  find,  at  first.)  It  had  to  grow  upon  her,  by 
degrees,  in  accordance  with  the  inalterable  cus 
tom  of  Circumstance,  which  works  by  stages,  and 
by  stages  only,  and  never  furnishes  any  mind 
with  all  the  materials  for  a  large  idea  at  one  time- 


270 

In  the  beginning,  Mrs,  Eddy  was  probably 
interested  merely  in  the  mental-healing  detail. 
And  perhaps  mainly  interested  in  it  pecuniarily, 
for  she  was  poor. 

She  would  succeed  in  anything  she  under 
took.  She  would  attract  pupils,  and  her  com 
merce  would  grow.  She  would  inspire  in  pa 
tient  and  pupil  confidence  in  her  earnestness; 
her  history  is  evidence  that  she  would  not  fail 
of  that. 

There  probably  came  a  time,  in  due  course, 
when  her  students  began  to  think  there  was 
something  deeper  in  her  teachings  than  they  had 
been  suspecting  —  a  mystery  beyond  mental- 
healing,  and  higher.  It  is  conceivable  that  by 
consequence  their  manner  towards  her  changed 
little  by  little,  and  from  respectful  became  rev 
erent.  It  is  conceivable  that  this  would  have 
an  influence  upon  her;  that  it  would  incline 
her  to  wonder  if  their  secret  thought — that  she 
was  inspired — might  not  be  a  well-grounded 
guess.  It  is  conceivable  that  as  time  went  on 
the  thought  in  their  minds  and  its  reflection 
in  hers  might  solidify  into  conviction. 

She  would  remember,  then,  that  as  a  child 


271 

she  had  been  called,  more  than  once,  by  a  mys 
terious  voice — just  as  had  happened  to  little 
Samuel.  (Mentioned  in  her  Autobiography.) 
She  would  be  impressed  by  that  ancient  remi 
niscence,  now,  and  it  could  have  a  prophetic 
meaning  for  her. 

It  is  conceivable  that  the  persuasive  influ 
ences  around  her  and  within  her  would  give  a 
new  and  powerful  impulse  to  her  philosophiz- 
ings,  and  that  from  this,  in  time,  would  result 
that  great  birth,  the  healing  of  body  and  mind 
by  the  inpouring  of  the  Spirit  of  God — the  cen 
tral  and  dominant  idea  of  Christian  Science — 
and  that  when  this  idea  came  she  would  not 
doubt  that  it  was  an  inspiration  direct  from 
Heaven. 


CHAPTER    XI 

[I  MUST  rest  a  little,  now.  To  sit  here  and 
painstakingly  spin  out  a  scheme  which  imagines 
Mrs.  Eddy,  of  all  people,  working  her  mind  on 
a  plane  above  commercialism;  imagines  her 
thinking,  philosophizing,  discovering  majestic 
things;  and  even  imagines  her  dealing  in  sin 
cerities — to  be  frank,  I  find  it  a  large  contract. 
But  I  have  begun  it,  and  I  will  go  through 
with  it.] 


CHAPTER    XII 

IT  is  evident  that  she  made  disciples  fast,  and 
that  their  belief  in  her  and  in  the  authenticity 
of  her  heavenly  ambassadorship  was  not  of  the 
lukewarm  and  half-way  sort,  but  was  pro 
foundly  earnest  and  sincere.  Her  book  was  is 
sued  from  the  press  in  1875,  it  began  its  work 
of  convert-making,  and  within  six  years  she  had 
successfully  launched  a  new  Religion  and  a  new 
system  of  healing,  and  was  teaching  them  to 
crowds  of  eager  students  in  a  College  of  her 
own,  at  prices  so  extraordinary  that  we  are  al 
most  compelled  to  accept  her  statement  (no, 
her  guarded  intimation)  that  the  rates  were  ar 
ranged  on  high,  since  a  mere  human  being  un 
acquainted  with  commerce  and  accustomed  to 
think  in  pennies  could  hardly  put  up  such  a 
hand  as  that  without  supernatural  help. 

From  this  stage  onward — Mrs.  Eddy  being 
what  she  was  —  the  rest  of  the  development- 
stages  would  follow  naturally  and  inevitably. 


274 

But  if  she  had  been  anybody  else,  there  would 
have  been  a  different  arrangement  of  them, 
with  different  results.  Being  the  extraordi 
nary  person  she  was,  she  realized  her  position 
and  its  possibilities;  realized  the  possibilities, 
and  had  the  daring  to  use  them  for  all  they 
were  worth. 

We  have  seen  what  her  methods  were  after 
she  passed  the  stage  where  her  divine  ambassa 
dorship  was  granted  its  exequatur  in  the  hearts 
and  minds  of  her  followers;  we  have  seen  how 
steady  and  fearless  and  calculated  and  orderly 
was  her  march  thenceforth  from  conquest  to 
conquest;  we  have  seen  her  strike  dead,  without 
hesitancy,  any  hostile  or  questionable  force  that 
rose  in  her  path :  first,  the  horde  of  pretenders 
that  sprang  up  and  tried  to  take  her  Science 
and  its  market  away  from  her — she  crushed 
them,  she  obliterated  them:  when  her  own  Na 
tional  Christian  Science  Association  became 
great  in  numbers  and  influence,  and  loosely  and 
dangerously  garrulous,  and  began  to  expound 
the  doctrines  according  to  its  own  uninspired 
notions,  she  took  up  her  sponge  without  a  tre 
mor  of  fear  and  wiped  that  Association  out; 


275 

when  she  perceived  that  the  preachers  in  her 
pulpits  were  becoming  afflicted  with  doctrine- 
tinkering,  she  recognized  the  danger  of  it,  and 
did  not  hesitate  nor  temporize,  but  promptly 
dismissed  the  whole  of  them  in  a  day,  and  abol 
ished  their  office  permanently;  we  have  seen 
that,  as  fast  as  her  power  grew,  she  was  compe 
tent  to  take  the  measure  of  it,  and  that  as  fast 
as  its  expansion  suggested  to  her  gradually 
awakening  native  ambition  a  higher  step  she 
took  it;  and  so,  by  this  evolutionary  process,  we 
have  seen  the  gross  money-lust  relegated  to 
second  place,  and  the  lust  of  empire  and  glory 
rise  above  it.  A  splendid  dream;  and  by  force 
of  the  qualities  born  in  her  she  is  making  it 
come  true. 

These  qualities — and  the  capacities  growing 
out  of  them  by  the  nurturing  influences  of 
training,  observation,  and  experience  —  seem 
to  be  clearly  indicated  by  the  character  of  her 
career  and  its  achievements.  They  seem  to 
be: 

A  clear  head  for  business,  and  a  phenom 
enally  long  one; 

Clear  understanding  of  business  situations; 


276 

Accuracy  in  estimating  the  opportunities  they 
offer; 

Intelligence  in  planning  a  business  move; 

Firmness  in  sticking  to  it  after  it  has  been 
decided  upon ; 

Extraordinary  daring; 

Indestructible  persistency; 

Devouring  ambition; 

Limitless  selfishness; 

A  knowledge  of  the  weaknesses  and  poverties 
and  docilities  of  human  nature  and  how  to  turn 
them  to  account  which  has  never  been  sur 
passed,  if  ever  equalled; 

And — necessarily — the  foundation-stone  of 
Mrs.  Eddy's  character  is  a  never  -  wavering 
confidence  in  herself. 

It  is  a  granite  character.  And — quite  nat 
urally — a  measure  of  the  talc  of  smallnesses 
common  to  human  nature  is  mixed  up  in  it 
and  distributed  through  it.  When  Mrs.  Eddy  is 
not  dictating  servilities  from  her  throne  in  the 
clouds  to  her  official  domestics  in  Boston  or  to 
her  far-spread  subjects  round  about  the  planet, 
but  is  down  on  the  ground,  she  is  kin  to  us  and 
one  of  us:  sentimental  as  a  girl,  garrulous,  un- 


277 

grammatical,  incomprehensible,  affected,  vain 
of  her  little  human  ancestry,  unstable,  incon 
sistent,  unreliable  in  statement,  and  naively 
and  everlastingly  self-contradictory — oh,  triv 
ial  and  common  and  commonplace  as  the  com 
monest  of  us  1  just  a  Napoleon  as  Madame  de 
Remusat  saw  him,  a  brass  god  with  clay  legs. 


CHAPTER    XIII 

IN  drawing  Mrs.  Eddy's  portrait  it  has  been 
my  purpose  to  restrict  myself  to  materials  fur 
nished  by  herself,  and  I  believe  I  have  done  that. 
If  I  have  misinterpreted  any  of  her  acts,  it  was 
not  done  intentionally. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  in  skeletonizing  a  list 
of  the  qualities  which  have  carried  her  to  the 
dizzy  summit  which  she  occupies,  I  have  not 
mentioned  the  power  which  was  the  command 
ing  force  employed  in  achieving  that  lofty  flight. 
It  did  not  belong  in  that  list;  it  was  a  force  that 
was  not  a  detail  of  her  character,  but  was  an 
outside  one.  It  was  the  power  which  proceed 
ed  from  her  people's  recognition  of  her  as  a  su 
pernatural  personage,  conveyer  of  the  Latest 
Word,  and  divinely  commissioned  to  deliver  it 
to  the  world.  The  form  which  such  a  recog 
nition  takes,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  is 
worship;  and  worship  does  not  question  nor 
criticise,  it  obeys.  The  object  of  it  does  not 


279 

need  to  coddle  it,  bribe  it,  beguile  it,  reason  with 
it,  convince  it — it  commands  it;  that  is  suffi 
cient;  the  obedience  rendered  is  not  reluctant, 
but  prompt  and  whole-hearted.  Admiration 
for  a  Napoleon,  confidence  in  him,  pride  in  him, 
affection  for  him,  can  lift  him  high  and  carry 
him  far;  and  these  are  forms  of  worship,  and  are 
strong  forces,  but  they  are  worship  of  a  mere 
human  being,  after  all,  and  are  infinitely  feeble, 
as  compared  with  those  that  are  generated  by 
that  other  worship,  the  worship  of  a  divine 
personage.  Mrs.  Eddy  has  this  efficient  wor 
ship,  this  massed  and  centralized  force,  this 
force  which  is  indifferent  to  opposition,  un 
troubled  by  fear,  and  goes  to  battle  singing, 
like  Cromwell's  soldiers;  and  while  she  has  it 
she  can  command  and  it  will  obey,  and  main 
tain  her  on  her  throne,  and  extend  her  empire. 
She  will  have  it  until  she  dies;  and  then  we 
shall  see  a  curious  and  interesting  further  de 
velopment  of  her  revolutionary  work  begin. 


CHAPTER    XIV 

THE  President  and  Board  of  Directors  will 
succeed  her,  and  the  government  will  go  on  with 
out  a  hitch.  The  By-laws  will  bear  that  inter 
pretation.  All  the  Mother-Church's  vast  powers 
are  concentrated  in  that  Board.  Mrs.  Eddy's  un 
limited  personal  reservations  make  the  Board's 
ostensible  supremacy,  during  her  life,  a  sham, 
and  the  Board  itself  a  shadow.  But  Mrs.  Eddy 
has  not  made  those  reservations  for  any  one 
but  herself — they  are  distinctly  personal,  they 
bear  her  name,  they  are  not  usable  by  another 
individual.  When  she  dies  her  reservations  die, 
and  the  Board's  shadow-powers  become  real 
powers,  without  the  change  of  any  important 
By-law,  and  the  Board  sits  in  her  place  as 
absolute  and  irresponsible  a  sovereign  as  she 
was. 

It  consists  of  but  five  persons,  a  much  more 
manageable  Car  din  a  late  than  the  Roman 


28l 


Pope's.  I  think  it  will  elect  its  Pope  from  its 
own  body,  and  that  it  will  fill  its  own  vacan 
cies.  An  elective  Papacy  is  a  safe  and  wise 
system,  and  a  long-liver. 


CHAPTER    XV 

WE  may  take  that  up  now. 
It  is  not  a  single  if,  but  a  several-jointed  one ; 
not  an  oyster,  but  a  vertebrate. 

1.  Did  Mrs.  Eddy  borrow  from  Quimby  the 
Great  Idea,  or  only  the  little  one,  the  old-timer, 
the  ordinary  mental-healing — healing  by  "  mor- 
tal"  mind? 

2.  If  she  borrowed  the  Great  Idea,  did  she 
carry  it  away  in  her  head,  or  in  manuscript? 

3.  Did  she  hit  upon  the  Great  Idea  herself? 

By  the  Great  Idea  I  mean,  of  course,  the  con 
viction  that  the  Force  involved  was  still  exist 
ent,  and  could  be  applied  now  just  as  it  was 
applied  by  Christ's  Disciples  and  their  con 
verts,  and  as  successfully. 

4.  Did  she  philosophize  it,   systematize  it, 
and  write  it  down  in  a  book? 

5.  Was  it  she,  and  not  another,  that  built  a 
new  Religion  upon  the  book  and  organized  it? 

I  think  No.  5  can  be  answered  with  a  Yes, 


283 

and  dismissed  from  the  controversy.  And  I 
think  that  the  Great  Idea,  great  as  it  was, 
would  have  enjoyed  but  a  brief  activity,  and 
would  then  have  gone  to  sleep  again  for  some 
more  centuries,  but  for  the  perpetuating  im 
pulse  it  got  from  that  organized  and  tremen 
dous  force. 

As  for  Nos.  1,2,  and  4,  the  hostiles  contend 
that  Mrs.  Eddy  got  the  Great  Idea  from  Quim- 
by  and  carried  it  off  in  manuscript.  But  their 
testimony,  while  of  consequence,  lacks  the  most 
important  detail;  so  far  as  my  information  goes, 
the  Quimby  manuscript  has  not  been  produced. 
I  think  we  cannot  discuss  No.  i  and  No.  2  prof 
itably.  Let  them  go. 

For  me,  No.  3  has  a  mild  interest,  and  No.  4 
a  violent  one. 

As  regards  No.  3,  Mrs.  Eddy  was  brought  up, 
from  the  cradle,  an  old-time,  boiler-iron,  West 
minster-Catechism  Christian,  and  knew  her 
Bible  as  well  as  Captain  Kydd  knew  his,  "  when 
he  sailed,  when  he  sailed,"  and  perhaps  as 
sympathetically.  The  Great  Idea  had  struck  a 
million  Bible-readers  before  her  as  being  pos 
sible  of  resurrection  and  application — it  must 
19 


284 

have  struck  as  many  as  that,  and  been  cogi 
tated,  indolently,  doubtingly,  then  dropped  and 
forgotten — and  it  could  have  struck  her,  in  due 
course.  But  how  it  could  interest  her,  how  it 
could  appeal  to  her — with  her  make — is  a 
thing  that  is  difficult  to  understand. 

For  the  thing  back  of  it  is  wholly  gracious  and 
beautiful:  the  power,  through  loving  merciful 
ness  and  compassion,  to  heal  fleshly  ills  and 
pains  and  griefs — all — with  a  word,  with  a 
touch  of  the  hand!  This  power  was  given  by 
the  Saviour  to  the  Disciples,  and  to  all  the  con 
verted.  All — every  one.  It  was  exercised  for 
generations  afterwards.  Any  Christian  who 
was  in  earnest  and  not  a  make-believe,  not  a 
policy-Christian,  not  a  Christian  for  revenue 
only,  had  that  healing  power,  and  could  cure 
with  it  any  disease  or  any  hurt  or  damage  possi 
ble  to  human  flesh  and  bone.  These  things  are 
true,  or  they  are  not.  If  they  were  true  sev 
enteen  and  eighteen  and  nineteen  centuries  ago 
it  would  be  difficult  to  satisfactorily  explain  why 
or  how  or  by  what  argument  that  power  should 
be  non-existent  in  Christians  now.1 

1  See  Appendix. — M.  T. 


285 

To  wish  to  exercise  it  could  occur  to  Mrs. 
Eddy — but  would  it? 

Grasping,  sordid,  penurious,  famishing  for 
everything  she  sees — money,  power,  glory — 
vain,  untruthful,  jealous,  despotic,  arrogant, 
insolent,  pitiless  where  thinkers  and  hypnotists 
are  concerned,  illiterate,  shallow,  incapable  of 
reasoning  outside  of  commercial  lines,  immeas 
urably  selfish— 

Of  course  the  Great  Idea  could  strike  her,  we 
have  to  grant  that,  but  why  it  should  interest 
her  is  a  question  which  can  easily  overstrain 
the  imagination  and  bring  on  nervous  prostra 
tion,  or  something  like  that,  and  is  better  left 
alone  by  the  judicious,  it  seems  to  me — - 

Unless  we  call  to  our  help  the  alleged  other 
side  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  make  and  character — the 
side  which  her  multitude  of  followers  see,  and 
sincerely  believe  in.  Fairness  requires  that 
their  view  be  stated  here.  It  is  the  opposite  of 
the  one  which  I  have  drawn  from  Mrs.  Eddy's 
history  and  from  her  By-laws.  To  her  fol 
lowers  she  is  this: 

Patient,  gentle,  loving,  compassionate,  noble- 
hearted,  unselfish,  sinless,  widely  cultured, 


286 

splendidly  equipped  mentally,  a  profound 
thinker,  an  able  writer,  a  divine  personage,  an 
inspired  messenger  whose  acts  are  dictated 
from  the  Throne,  and  whose  every  utterance  is 
the  Voice  of  God. 

She  has  delivered  to  them  a  religion  which  has 
revolutionized  their  lives,  banished  the  glooms 
that  shadowed  them,  and  filled  them  and  flooded 
them  with  sunshine  and  gladness  and  peace ;  a 
religion  which  has  no  hell;  a  religion  whose 
heaven  is  not  put  off  to  another  time,  with  a 
break  and  a  gulf  between,  but  begins  here  and 
now,  and  melts  into  eternity  as  fancies  of  the 
waking  day  melt  into  the  dreams  of  sleep. 

They  believe  it  is  a  Christianity  that  is  in  the 
New  Testament;  that  it  has  always  been  there; 
that  in  the  drift  of  ages  it  was  lost  through  dis 
use  and  neglect,  and  that  this  benefactor  has 
found  it  and  given  it  back  to  men,  turning  the 
night  of  life  into  day,  its  terrors  into  myths,  its 
lamentations  into  songs  of  emancipation  and 
rejoicing.1 

1  For  a  clear  understanding  of  the  two  claims  of  Chris 
tian  Science,  read  the  novel  The  Life  Within,  published  by 
Lothrops,  Boston. — M.  T. 


28; 

There  we  have  Mrs.  Eddy  as  her  followers 
see  her.  She  has  lifted  them  out  of  grief  and 
care  and  doubt  and  fear,  and  made  their  lives 
beautiful ;  she  found  them  wandering  forlorn  in 
a  wintry  wilderness,  and  has  led  them  to  a  trop 
ic  paradise  like  that  of  which  the  poet  sings: 

"  O,  islands  there  are  on  the  face  of  the  deep 
Where  the  leaves  never  fade  and  the  skies  never 
weep." 

To  ask  them  to  examine  with  a  microscope 
the  character  of  such  a  benefactor;  to  ask  them 
to  examine  it  at  all;  to  ask  them  to  look  at  a 
blemivsh  which  another  person  believes  he  has 
found  in  it — well,  in  their  place  could  you  do 
it?  Would  you  do  it?  Wouldn't  you  be 
ashamed  to  do  it?  If  a  tramp  had  rescued 
your  child  from  fire  and  death,  and  saved  its 
mother's  heart  from  breaking,  could  you  see 
his  rags?  Could  you  smell  his  breath?  Mrs. 
Eddy  has  done  more  than  that  for  these  people. 

They  are  prejudiced  witnesses.  To  the  credit 
of  human  nature  it  is  not  possible  that  they 
should  be  otherwise.  They  sincerely  believe 
that  Mrs.  Eddy's  character  is  pure  and  perfect 


288 

and  beautiful,  and  her  history  without  stain  or 
blot  or  blemish.  But  that  does  not  settle  it. 
They  sincerely  believe  she  did  not  borrow  the 
Great  Idea  from  Quimby,  but  hit  upon  it  her 
self.  It  may  be  so,  and  it  could  be  so.  Let  it 
go — there  is  no  way  to  settle  it.  They  believe 
she  carried  away  no  Quimby  manuscripts.  Let 
that  go,  too — there  is  no  way  to  settle  it.  They 
believe  that  she,  and  not  another,  built  the  Re 
ligion  upon  the  book,  and  organized  it.  I  be 
lieve  it,  too. 

Finally,  they  believe  that  she  philosophized 
Christian  Science,  explained  it,  systematized  it, 
and  wrote  it  all  out  with  her  own  hand  in  the 
book  Science  and  Health. 

I  am  not  able  to  believe  that.  Let  us  draw 
the  line  there.  The  known  and  undisputed 
products  of  her  pen  are  a  formidable  witness 
against  her.  They  do  seem  to  me  to  prove, 
quite  clearly  and  conclusively,  that  writing, 
upon  even  simple  subjects,  is  a  difficult  labor 
for  her;  that  she  has  never  been  able  to  write 
anything  above  third-rate  English;  that  she  is 
weak  in  the  matter  of  grammar;  that  she  has 
but  a  rude  and  dull  sense  of  the  values  of 


289 

words ;  that  she  so  lacks  in  the  matter  of  liter 
ary  precision  that  she  can  seldom  put  a  thought 
into  words  that  express  it  lucidly  to  the  reader 
and  leave  no  doubts  in  his  mind  as  to  whether 
he  has  rightly  understood  or  not ;  that  she  can 
not  even  draught  a  Preface  that  a  person  can 
fully  comprehend,  nor  one  which  can  by  any  art 
be  translated  into  a  fully  understandable  form ; 
that  she  can  seldom  inject  into  a  Preface  even 
single  sentences  whose  meaning  is  uncompro 
misingly  clear — yet  Prefaces  are  her  specialty, 
if  she  has  one. 

Mrs.  Eddy's  known  and  undisputed  writings 
are  very  limited  in  bulk ;  they  exhibit  no  depth, 
no  analytical  quality,  no  thought  above  school- 
composition  size,  and  but  juvenile  ability  in 
handling  thoughts  of  even  that  modest  magni 
tude.  She  has  a  fine  commercial  ability,  and 
could  govern  a  vast  railway  system  in  great 
style ;  she  could  draught  a  set  of  rules  that  Satan 
himself  would  say  could  not  be  improved  on — 
for  devilish  effectiveness — by  his  staff;  but  we 
know,  by  our  excursions  among  the  Mother- 
Church's  By-laws,  that  their  English  would 
discredit  the  deputy  baggage-smasher.  I  am 


290 

quite  sure  that  Mrs.  Eddy  cannot  write  well 
upon  any  subject,  even  a  commercial  one. 

In  the  very  first  revision  of  Science  and 
Health  (1883),  Mrs.  Eddy  wrote  a  Preface  which 
is  an  unimpeachable  witness  that  the  rest  of 
the  book  was  written  by  somebody  else.  I 
have  put  it  in  the  Appendix1  along  with  a  page 
or  two  taken  from  the  body  of  the  book,2  and 
will  ask  the  reader  to  compare  the  labored  and 
lumbering  and  confused  gropings  of  this  Preface 
with  the  easy  and  flowing  and  direct  English  of 
the  other  exhibit,  and  see  if  he  can  believe  that 
the  one  hand  and  brain  produced  both. 

And  let  him  take  the  Preface  apart,  sentence 
by  sentence,  and  searchingly  examine  each  sen 
tence  word  by  word,  and  see  if  he  can  find  half 
a  dozen  sentences  whose  meanings  he  is  so  sure 
of  that  he  can  rephrase  them — in  words  of  his 
own — and  reproduce  what  he  takes  to  be  those 
meanings.  Money  can  be  lost  on  this  game. 
I  know,  for  I  am  the  one  that  lost  it. 

Now  let  the  reader  turn  to  the  excerpt  which 
I  have  made  from  the  chapter  on  "Prayer* 

1  See  Appendix  A.— M.  T.  *  Appendix  B.— M.  T. 

8  See  Appendix.— M.  T. 


'3 


291 

(last  year's  edition  of  Science  and  Health),  and 
compare  that  wise  and  sane  and  elevated  and 
lucid  and  compact  piece  of  work  with  the  afore 
said  Preface,  and  with  Mrs.  Eddy's  poetry  con 
cerning  the  gymnastic  trees,  and  Minerva's  not 
yet  effete  sandals,  and  the  wreaths  imported 
from  Erudition's  bower  for  the  decoration  of 
Plymouth  Rock,  and  the  Plague-spot  and  Ba 
cilli,  and  my  other  exhibits  (turn  back  to  my 
Chapters  I.  and  II.)  from  the  Autobiography, 
and  finally  with  the  late  Communication  con 
cerning  me,1  and  see  if  he  thinks  anybody's 
affirmation,  or  anybody's  sworn  testimony,  or 
any  other  testimony  of  any  imaginable  kind, 
would  ever  be  likely  to  convince  him  that  Mrs. 
Eddy  wrote  that  chapter  on  Prayer. 

I  do  not  wish  to  impose  my  opinion  on  any 
one  who  will  not  permit  it,  but  such  as  it  is  I 
offer  it  here  for  what  it  is  worth.  I  cannot 
believe,  and  I  do  not  believe,  that  Mrs.  Eddy 
originated  any  of  the  thoughts  and  reasonings 
out  of  which  the  book  Science  and  Health  is  con- 

1  See  Appendix.  This  reference  is  to  the  article  "Mrs. 
Eddy  in  Error,"  in  the  North  American  Review  for  April, 
1903.— M.  T. 


structed;  and  I  cannot  believe,  and  do  not  be 
lieve  that  she  ever  wrote  any  part  of  that  book. 

I  think  that  if  anything  in  the  world  stands 
proven,  and  well  and  solidly  proven,  by  unim 
peachable  testimony  —  the  treacherous  testi 
mony  of  her  own  pen  in  her  known  and  undis 
puted  literary  productions  —  it  is  that  Mrs. 
Eddy  is  not  capable  of  thinking  upon  high 
planes,  nor  of  reasoning  clearly  nor  writing  in 
telligently  upon  low  ones. 

Inasmuch  as — in  my  belief — the  very  first 
editions  of  the  book  Science  and  Health  were 
far  above  the  reach  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  mental  and 
literary  abilities,  I  think  she  has  from  the  very 
beginning  been  claiming  as  her  own  another 
person's  book,  and  wearing  as  her  own  property 
laurels  rightfully  belonging  to  that  person — 
the  real  author  of  Science  and  Health.  And  I 
think  the  reason — and  the  only  reason — that 
he  has  not  protested  is  because  his  work  was 
not  exposed  to  print  until  after  he  was  safely 
dead. 

That  with  an  eye  to  business,  and  by  grace  of 
her  business  talent,  she  has  restored  to  the 
world  neglected  and  abandoned  features  of  the 


293 

Christian  religion  which  her  thousands  of  fol 
lowers  find  gracious  and  blessed  and  contenting, 
I  recognize  and  confess;  but  I  am  convinced 
that  every  single  detail  of  the  work  except 
just  that  one — the  delivery  of  the  product  to 
the  world — was  conceived  and  performed  by 
another. 


APPENDIX  A 

ORIGINAL  FIRST  PREFACE  TO  SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH 

THERE  seems  a  Christian  necessity  of,  learn 
ing  God's  power  and  purpose  to  heal  both  mind 
and  body.  This  thought  grew  out  of  our  early 
seeking  Him  in  all  our  ways,  and  a  hopeless  as 
singular  invalidism  that  drugs  increased  instead 
of  diminished,  and  hygiene  benefited  only  for  a 
season.  By  degrees  we  have  drifted  into  more 
spiritual  latitudes  of  thought,  and  experimented 
as  we  advanced  until  demonstrating  fully  the 
power  of  mind  over  the  body.  About  the  year 
1862,  having  heard  of  a  mesmerist  in  Portland 
who  was  treating  the  sick  by  manipulation,  we 
visited  him;  he  helped  us  for  a  time,  then  we 
relapsed  somewhat.  After  his  decease,  and  a 
severe  casualty  deemed  fatal  by  skilful  physi 
cians,  we  discovered  that  the  Principle  of  all 
healing  and  the  law  that  governs  it  is  God,  a 
divine  Principle,  and  a  spiritual  not  material 
law,  and  regained  health. 


295 

It  was  not  an  individual  or  mortal  mind  act 
ing  upon  another  so-called  mind  that  healed 
us.  It  was  the  glorious  truths  of  Christian 
Science  that  we  discovered  as  we  neared  that 
verge  of  so-called  material  life  named  death; 
yea,  it  was  the  great  Shekinah,  the  spirit  of 
Life,  Truth,  and  Love  illuminating  our  under 
standing  of  the  action  and  might  of  Omnipo 
tence!  The  old  gentleman  to  whom  we  have 
referred  had  some  very  advanced  views  on  heal 
ing,  but  he  was  not  avowedly  religious  neither 
scholarly.  We  interchanged  thoughts  on  the 
subject  of  healing  the  sick.  I  restored  some 
patients  of  his  that  he  failed  to  heal,  and  left 
in  his  possession  some  manuscripts  of  mine 
containing  corrections  of  his  desultory  pen- 
nings.  which  I  am  informed  at  his  decease 
passed  into  the  hands  of  a  patient  of  his,  now 
residing  in  Scotland.  He  died  in  1865  and 
left  no  published  works.  The  only  manuscript 
that  we  ever  held  of  his,  longer  than  to  cor 
rect  it,  was  one  of  perhaps  a  dozen  pages, 
most  of  which  we  had  composed.  He  manip 
ulated  the  sick;  hence  his  ostensible  method 
of  healing  was  physical  instead  of  mental. 


296 

We  helped  him  in  the  esteem  of  the  public  by 
our  writings,  but  never  knew  of  his  stating  orally 
or  in  writing  that  he  treated  his  patients  men 
tally;  never  heard  him  give  any  directions  to 
that  effect ;  and  have  it  from  one  of  his  patients, 
who  now  asserts  that  he  was  the  founder  of  men 
tal  healing,  that  he  never  revealed  to  anyone 
his  method.  We  refer  to  these  facts  simply  to 
refute  the  calumnies  and  false  claims  of  our  en 
emies,  that  we  are  preferring  dishonest  claims 
to  the  discovery  and  founding  at  this  period  of 
Metaphysical  Healing  or  Christian  Science. 

The  Science  and  laws  of  a  purely  mental  heal 
ing  and  their  method  of  application  through 
spiritual  power  alone,  else  a  mental  argument 
against  disease,  are  our  own  discovery  at  this 
date.  True,  the  Principle  is  divine  and  eternal ; 
but  the  application  of  it  to  heal  the  sick  had 
been  lost  sight  of,  and  required  to  be  again 
spiritually  discerned  and  its  science  discovered, 
that  man  might  retain  it  through  the  under 
standing.  Since  our  discovery  in  1866  of  the 
divine  science  of  Christian  Healing,  we  have 
labored  with  tongue  and  pen  to  found  this  sys 
tem.  In  this  endeavor  every  obstacle  has  been 


297 

thrown  in  our  path  that  the  envy  and  revenge 
of  a  few  disaffected  students  could  devise.  The 
superstition  and  ignorance  of  even  this  period 
have  not  failed  to  contribute  their  mite  tow 
ards  misjudging  us,  while  its  Christian  advance 
ment  and  scientific  research  have  helped  sus 
tain  our  feeble  efforts. 

Since  our  first  Edition  of  Science  and  Health, 
published  in  1875,  two  of  the  aforesaid  students 
have  plagiarized  and  pirated  our  works.  In  the 
issues  of  E.  J.  A.,  almost  exclusively  ours,  were 
thirteen  paragraphs,  without  credit,  taken  ver 
batim  from  our  books. 

Not  one  of  our  printed  works  was  ever  cop 
ied  or  abstracted  from  the  published  or  from 
the  unpublished  writings  of  anyone.  Through 
out  our  publications  of  Metaphysical  Healing 
or  Christian  Science,  when  writing  or  dictating 
them,  we  have  given  ourselves  to  contempla 
tion  wholly  apart  from  the  observation  of  the 
material  senses :  to  look  upon  a  copy  would  have 
distracted  our  thoughts  from  the  subject  before 
us.  We  were  seldom  able  to  copy  our  own  com 
positions,  and  have  employed  an  amanuensis 
for  the  last  six  years.  Every  work  that  we 


298 

have  had  published  has  been  extemporaneously 
written;  and  out  of  fifty  lectures  and  sermons 
that  we  have  delivered  the  last  year,  forty-four 
have  been  extemporaneous.  We  have  distrib 
uted  many  of  our  unpublished  manuscripts; 
loaned  to  one  of  our  youngest  students,  R. 

K y,  between  three  and  four  hundred 

pages,  of  which  we  were  sole  author — giving 
him  liberty  to  copy  but  not  to  publish  them. 

Leaning  on  the  sustaining  Infinite  with  lov 
ing  trust,  the  trials  of  to-day  grow  brief,  and 
to-morrow  is  big  with  blessings. 

The  wakeful  shepherd,  tending  his  flocks, 
beholds  from  the  mountain's  top  the  first  faint 
morning  beam  ere  cometh  the  risen  day.  So 
from  Soul's  loftier  summits  shines  the  pale  star 
to  prophet-shepherd,  and  it  traverses  night, 
over  to  where  the  young  child  lies,  in  cradled 
obscurity,  that  shall  waken  a  world.  Over  the 
night  of  error  dawn  the  morning  beams  and 
guiding  star  of  Truth,  and  "  the  wise  men  "  are 
led  by  it  to  Science,  which  repeats  the  eternal 
harmony  that  it  reproduced,  in  proof  of  im 
mortality.  The  time  for  thinkers  has  come; 
and  the  time  for  revolutions,  ecclesiastical  and 


civil,  must  come.  Truth,  independent  of  doc 
trines  or  time-honored  systems,  stands  at  the 
threshold  of  history.  Contentment  with  the 
past,  or  the  cold  conventionality  of  custom, 
may  no  longer  shut  the  door  on  science ;  though 
empires  fall,  "  He  whose  right  it  is  shall  reign. " 
Ignorance  of  God  should  no  longer  be  the 
stepping-stone  to  faith;  understanding  Him, 
"whom  to  know  aright  is  Life  eternal,"  is  the 
only  guaranty  of  obedience. 

This  volume  may  not  open  a  new  thought, 
and  make  it  at  once  familiar.  It  has  the  sturdy 
task  of  a  pioneer,  to  hack  away  at  the  tall  oaks 
and  cut  the  rough  granite,  leaving  future  ages 
to  declare  what  it  has  done.  We  made  our 
first  discovery  of  the  adaptation  of  metaphys 
ics  to  the  treatment  of  disease  in  the  winter  of 
1866;  since  then  we  have  tested  the  Principle 
on  ourselves  and  others,  and  never  found  it  to 
fail  to  prove  the  statements  herein  made  of  it. 
We  must  learn  the  science  of  Life,  to  reach  the 
perfection  of  man.  To  understand  God  as  the 
Principle  of  all  being,  and  to  live  in  accordance 
with  this  Principle,  is  the  Science  of  Life.  But 
to  reproduce  this  harmony  of  being,  the  error 


of  personal  sense  must  yield  to  science,  even  as 
the  science  of  music  corrects  tones  caught  from 
the  ear,  and  gives  the  sweet  concord  of  sound. 
There  are  many  theories  of  physic  and  theology, 
and  many  calls  in  each  of  their  directions  for 
the  right  way;  but  we  propose  to  settle  the 
question  of  "  What  is  Truth?"  on  the  ground  of 
proof,  and  let  that  method  of  healing  the  sick 
and  establishing  Christianity  be  adopted  that 
is  found  to  give  the  most  health  and  to  make 
the  best  Christians;  science  will  then  have  a 
fair  field,  in  which  case  we  are  assured  of  its  tri 
umph  over  all  opinions  and  beliefs.  Sickness 
and  sin  have  ever  had  their  doctors;  but  the 
question  is,  Have  they  become  less  because  of 
them?  The  longevity  of  our  antediluvians 
would  say,  No!  and  the  criminal  records  of  to 
day  utter  their  voices  little  in  favor  of  such  a 
conclusion.  Not  that  we  would  deny  to  Caesar 
the  things  that  are  his,  but  that  we  ask  for  the 
things  that  belong  to  Truth;  and  safely  affirm, 
from  the  demonstrations  we  have  been  able  to 
make,  that  the  science  of  man  understood 
would  have  eradicated  sin,  sickness,  and  death, 
in  a  less  period  than  six  thousand  years.  We 


find  great  difficulties  in  starting  this  work  right. 
Some  shockingly  false  claims  are  already  made 
to  a  metaphysical  practice;  mesmerism,  its  very 
antipodes,  is  one  of  them.  Hitherto  we  have 
never,  in  a  single  instance  of  our  discovery, 
found  the  slightest  resemblance  between  mes 
merism  and  metaphysics.  No  especial  idiosyn 
crasy  is  requisite  to  acquire  a  knowledge  of 
metaphysical  healing;  spiritual  sense  is  more 
important  to  its  discernment  than  the  intellect ; 
and  those  who  would  learn  this  science  without 
a  high  moral  standard  of  thought  and  action, 
will  fail  to  understand  it  until  they  go  up  higher. 
Owing  to  our  explanations  constantly  vibrat 
ing  between  the  same  points,  an  irksome  repe 
tition  of  words  must  occur ;  also  the  use  of  cap 
ital  letters,  genders,  and  technicalities  peculiar 
to  the  science.  Variety  of  language,  or  beauty 
of  diction,  must  give  place  to  close  analysis  and 
unembellished  thought.  "  Hoping  all  things, 
enduring  all  things,"  to  do  good  to  our  enemies, 
to  bless  them  that  curse  us,  and  to  bear  to  the 
sorrowing  and  the  sick  consolation  and  healing, 
we  commit  these  pages  to  posterity. 

MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY. 


APPENDIX  B 

THE  Gospel  narratives  bear  brief  testimony 
even  to  the  life  of  our  great  Master.  His  spir 
itual  noumenon  and  phenomenon,  silenced  por 
traiture.  Writers,  less  wise  than  the  Apostles, 
essayed  in  the  Apocryphal  New  Testament,  a 
legendary  and  traditional  history  of  the  early 
life  of  Jesus.  But  Saint  Paul  summarized  the 
character  of  Jesus  as  the  model  of  Christianity, 
in  these  words:  " Consider  Him  who  endured 
such  contradictions  of  sinners  against  Himself. 
Who  for  the  joy  that  was  set  before  Him,  en 
dured  the  cross,  despising  the  shame,  and  is 
set  down  at  the  right  hand  of  the  throne  of 
God." 

It  may  be  that  the  mortal  life-battle  still 
wages,  and  must  continue  till  its  involved 
errors  are  vanquished  by  victory  -  bringing 
Science;  but  this  triumph  will  come!  God  is 
over  all.  He  alone  is  our  origin,  aim,  and  Be 
ing.  The  real  man  is  not  of  the  dust,  nor  is  he 


3Q3 

ever  created  through  the  flesh;  for  his  father 
and  mother  are  the  one  Spirit,  and  his  brethren 
are  all  the  children  of  one  parent,  the  eternal 
Good. 

Any  kind  of  literary  composition  was  exces 
sively  difficult  for  Mrs.  Eddy.  She  found  it 
grinding  hard  work  to  dig  out  anything  to  say. 
She  realized,  at  the  above  stage  in  her  life,  that 
with  all  her  trouble  she  had  not  been  able  to 
scratch  together  even  material  enough  for  a 
child's  Autobiography,  and  also  that  what  she 
had  secured  was  in  the  main  not  valuable,  not 
important,  considering  the  age  and  the  fame  of 
the  person  she  was  writing  about ;  and  so  it  oc 
curred  to  her  to  attempt,  in  that  paragraph,  to 
excuse  the  meagreness  and  poor  quality  of  the 
feast  she  was  spreading,  by  letting  on  that  she 
could  do  ever  so  much  better  if  she  wanted  to, 
but  was  under  constraint  of  Divine  etiquette. 
To  feed  with  more  than  a  few  indifferent  crumbs 
a  plebeian  appetite  for  personal  details  about 
Personages  in  her  class  was  not  the  correct 
thing,  and  she  blandly  points  out  that  there  is 
Precedent  for  this  reserve.  When  Mrs.  Eddy 


tries  to  be  artful — in  literature — it  is  generally 
after  the  manner  of  the  ostrich;  and  with  the 
ostrich's  luck.  Please  try  to  find  the  connec 
tion  between  the  two  paragraphs.  — M.  T. 


APPENDIX  C 

THE  following  is  the  spiritual  signification  of 
the  Lord's  Prayer: 

Principle,  eternal  and  harmonious, 

Nameless  and  adorable  Intelligence, 

Thou  art  ever  present  and  supreme. 

And  when  this  supremacy  of  Spirit  shall  appear, 
the  dream  of  matter  will  disappear. 

Give  us  the  understanding  of  Truth  and  Love. 

And  loving  we  shall  learn  God,  and  Truth  will 
destroy  all  error. 

And  lead  us  unto  the  Life  that  is  Soul,  and  de 
liver  us  from  the  errors  of  sense,  sin,  sick 
ness,  and  death, 

For  God  is  Life,  Truth,  and  Love  for  ever. 
— Science  and  Health,  edition  of  1881. 

It  seems  to  me  that  this  one  is  distinctly 
superior  to  the  one  that  was  inspired  for  last 
year's  edition.  It  is  strange,  but  to  my  mind 
plain,  that  inspiring  is  an  art  which  does  not 
improve  with  practice. — M.  T. 


APPENDIX  D 

For  verily  I  say  unto  you,  That  whosoever  shall  say 
unto  this  mountain,  Be  thou  removed,  and  be  thou  cast 
into  the  sea;  and  shall  not  doubt  in  his  heart,  but  shall 
believe  that  those  things  which  he  saith  shall  come  to 
pass;  he  shall  have  whatsoever  he  saith.  Therefore  I 
say  unto  you,  What  things  soever  ye  desire  when  ye 
pray,  believe  that  ye  receive  them,  and  ye  shall  have 
them. 

Your  Father  knoweth  what  things  ye  have  need  of, 
before  ye  ask  Him. — CHRIST  JESUS. 

THE  prayer  that  reclaims  the  sinner  and  heals 
the  sick,  is  an  absolute  faith  that  all  things  are 
possible  to  God — a  spiritual  understanding  of 
Him — an  unselfed  love.  Regardless  of  what 
another  may  say  or  think  on  this  subject,  I 
speak  from  experience.  This  prayer,  com 
bined  with  self-sacrifice  and  toil,  is  the  means 
whereby  God  has  enabled  me  to  do  what  I  have 
done  for  the  religion  and  health  of  mankind. 

Thoughts  unspoken  are  not  unknown  to  the 
divine  Mind.  Desire  is  prayer;  and  no  less  can 
occur  from  trusting  God  with  our  desires,  that 


3Q7 

they  may  be  moulded  and  exalted  before  they 
take  form  in  audible  word,  and  in  deeds. 

What  are  the  motives  for  prayer?  Do  we 
pray  to  make  ourselves  better,  or  to  benefit 
those  that  hear  us;  to  enlighten  the  Infinite, 
or  to  be  heard  of  men?  Are  we  benefited  by 
praying?  Yes,  the  desire  which  goes  forth 
hungering  after  righteousness  is  blessed  of 
our  Father,  and  it  does  not  return  unto  us 
void. 

God  is  not  moved  by  the  breath  of  praise  to 
do  more  than  He  has  already  done ;  nor  can  the 
Infinite  do  less  than  bestow  all  good,  since  He 
is  unchanging  Wisdom  and  Love.  We  can  do 
more  for  ourselves  by  humble  fervent  petitions ; 
but  the  All-loving  does  not  grant  them  simply 
on  the  ground  of  lip-service,  for  He  already 
knows  all. 

Prayer  cannot  change  the  Science  of  Being, 
but  it  does  bring  us  into  harmony  with  it. 
Goodness  reaches  the  demonstration  of  Truth. 
A  request  that  another  may  work  for  us  never 
does  our  work.  The  habit  of  pleading  with  the 
divine  Mind,  as  one  pleads  with  a  human  being, 
perpetuates  the  belief  in  God  as  humanly  cir- 


308 

cu inscribed — an  error  which  impedes  spiritual 
growth. 

God  is  Love.  Can  we  ask  Him  to  be  more? 
God  is  Intelligence.  Can  we  inform  the  infinite 
Mind,  or  tell  Him  anything  He  does  not  already 
comprehend?  Do  we  hope  to  change  perfec 
tion?  Shall  we  plead  for  more  at  the  open 
fount,  which  always  pours  forth  more  than  we 
receive?  The  unspoken  prayer  does  bring  us 
nearer  the  Source  of  all  existence  and  blessed 
ness. 

Asking  God  to  be  God  is  a  "  vain  repetition." 
God  is  "the  same  yesterday,  and  to-day,  and 
forever";  and  He  who  is  immutably  right  will 
do  right,  without  being  reminded  of  His  prov 
ince.  The  wisdom  of  man  is  not  sufficient  to 
warrant  him  in  advising  God. 

Who  would  stand  before  a  blackboard,  and 
pray  the  principle  of  mathematics  to  work  out 
the  problem?  The  rule  is  already  established, 
and  it  is  our  task  to  work  out  the  solution. 
Shall  we  ask  the  divine  Principle  of  all  good 
ness  to  do  His  own  work?  His  work  is  done; 
and*  we  have  only  to  avail  ourselves  of  God's 
rule,  in  order  to  receive  the  blessing  thereof. 


309 

The  divine  Being  must  be  reflected  by  man — 
else  man  is  not  the  image  and  likeness  of  the  pa 
tient,  tender,  and  true,  the  one  "altogether 
lovely  " ;  but  to  understand  God  is  the  work  of 
eternity,  and  demands  absolute  concentration 
of  thought  and  energy. 

How  empty  are  our  conceptions  of  Deity! 
We  admit  theoretically  that  God  is  good,  om 
nipotent,  omnipresent,  infinite,  and  then  we 
try  to  give  information  to  this  infinite  Mind; 
and  plead  for  unmerited  pardon,  and  a  liberal 
outpouring  of  benefactions.  Are  we  really 
grateful  for  the  good  already  received?  Then 
we  shall  avail  ourselves  of  the  blessings  we 
have,  and  thus  be  fitted  to  receive  more.  Grat 
itude  is  much  more  than  a  verbal  expression  of 
thanks.  Action  expresses  more  gratitude  than 
speech. 

If  we  are  ungrateful  for  Life,  Truth,  and 
Love,  and  yet  return  thanks  to  God  for  all 
blessings,  we  are  insincere ;  and  incur  the  sharp 
censure  our  Master  pronounces  on  hypocrites. 
In  such  a  case  the  only  acceptable  prayer  is  to 
put  the  finger  on  the  lips  and  remember  our 
blessings.  While  the  heart  is  far  from  divine 


3io 

Truth  and  Love,  we  cannot  conceal  the  ingrat 
itude  of  barren  lives,  for  God  knoweth  all 
things. 

What  we  most  need  is  the  prayer  of  fervent 
desire  for  growth  in  grace,  expressed  in  pa 
tience,  meekness,  love,  and  good  deeds.  To 
keep  the  commandments  of  our  Master  and 
follow  his  example,  is  our  proper  debt  to  Him, 
and  the  only  worthy  evidence  of  our  gratitude 
for  all  He  has  done.  Outward  worship  is  not 
of  itself  sufficient  to  express  loyal  and  heartfelt 
gratitude,  since  He  has  said:  "If  ye  love  Me, 
keep  My  Commandments." 

The  habitual  struggle  to  be  always  good,  is 
unceasing  prayer.  Its  motives  are  made  mani 
fest  in  the  blessings  they  bring — which,  if  not 
acknowledged  in  audible  words,  attest  our 
worthiness  to  be  made  partakers  of  Love, 

Simply  asking  that  we  may  love  God  will 
never  make  us  love  Him ;  but  the  longing  to  be 
better  and  holier — expressed  in  daily  watch 
fulness,  and  in  striving  to  assimilate  more  of 
the  divine  character  —  this  will  mould  and 
fashion  us  anew,  until  we  awake  in  His  likeness. 
We  reach  the  Science  of  Christianity  through 


31* 

demonstration  of  the  divine  nature ;  but  in  this 
wicked  world  goodness  will i:  be  evil  spoken  of," 
and  patience  must  work  experience. 

Audible  prayer  can  never  do  the  works 
of  spiritual  understanding,  which  regenerates; 
but  silent  prayer,  watchfulness,  and  devout 
obedience,  enable  us  to  follow  Jesus'  example. 
Long  prayers,  ecclesiasticism,  and  creeds,  have 
clipped  the  divine  pinions  of  Love,  and  clad 
religion  in  human  robes.  They  materialize 
worship,  hinder  the  Spirit,  and  keep  man  from 
demonstrating  his  power  over  error. 

Sorrow  for  wrong-doing  is  but  one  step  tow 
ards  reform,  and  the  very  easiest  step.  The 
next  and  great  step  required  by  Wisdom  is 
the  test  of  our  sincerity — namely,  reformation. 
To  this  end  we  are  placed  under  the  stress  of 
circumstances.  Temptation  bids  us  repeat  the 
offence,  and  woe  comes  in  return  for  what  is 
done.  So  it  will  ever  be,  till  we  learn  that 
there  is  no  discount  in  the  law  of  justice,  and 
that  we  must  pay  "the  uttermost  farthing." 
The  measure  ye  mete  "shall  be  measured  to 
you  again,"  and  it  will  be  full  "and  running 


over." 


312 

Saints  and  sinners  get  their  full  award,  but 
not  always  in  this  world.  The  followers  of 
Christ  drank  His  cup.  Ingratitude  and  perse 
cution  filled  it  to  the  brim;  but  God  pours  the 
riches  of  His  love  into  the  understanding  and 
affections,  giving  us  strength  according  to  our 
day.  Sinners  flourish  "  like  a  green  bay-tree  " ; 
but,  looking  farther,  the  Psalmist  could  see 
their  end  —  namely,  the  destruction  of  sin 
through  suffering. 

Prayer  is  sometimes  used,  as  a  confessional, 
to  cancel  sin.  This  error  impedes  true  religion. 
Sin  is  forgiven,  only  as  it  is  destroyed  by  Christ 
— Truth  and  Life0  If  prayer  nourishes  the  be 
lief  that  sin  is  cancelled,  and  that  man  is  made 
better  by  merely  praying,  it  is  an  evil.  He 
grows  worse  who  continues  in  sin  because  he 
thinks  himself  forgiven. 

An  apostle  says  that  the  Son  of  God  (Christ) 
came  to  "  destroy  the  works  of  the  devil."  We 
should  follow  our  divine  Exemplar,  and  seek 
the  destruction  of  all  evil  works,  error  and  dis 
ease  included.  We  cannot  escape  the  penalty 
due  for  sin.  The  Scriptures  say,  that  if  we 
deny  Christ,  "He  also  will  deny  us/' 


The  divine  Love  corrects  and  governs  man. 
Men  may  pardon,  but  this  divine  Principle 
alone  reforms  the  sinner.  God  is  not  separate 
from  the  wisdom  He  bestows.  The  talents  He 
gives  we  must  improve.  Calling  on  Him  to 
forgive  our  work,  badly  done  or  left  undone, 
implies  the  vain  supposition  that  we  have  noth 
ing  to  do  but  to  ask  pardon,  and  that  after 
wards  we  shall  be  free  to  repeat  the  offence. 

To  cause  suffering,  as  the  result  of  sin,  is  the 
means  of  destroying  sin.  Every  supposed  pleas 
ure  in  sin  will  furnish  more  than  its  equiv 
alent  of  pain,  until  belief  in  material  life  and 
sin  is  destroyed.  To  reach  heaven,  the  har 
mony  of  Being,  we  must  understand  the  divine 
Principle  of  Being. 

"God  is  Love."  More  than  this  we  cannot 
ask ;  higher  we  cannot  look ;  farther  we  cannot 
go.  To  suppose  that  God  forgives  or  punishes 
sin,  according  as  His  mercy  is  sought  or  un 
sought,  is  to  misunderstand  Love  and  make 
prayer  the  safety-valve  for  wrong-doing. 

Jesus  uncovered  and  rebuked  sin  before  He 
cast  it  out.  Of  a  sick  woman  He  said  that 
Satan  had  bound  her;  and  to  Peter  He  said, 


"Thou  art  an  offence  unto  me/?  He  came 
teaching  and  showing  men  how  to  destroy  sin, 
sickness,  and  death.  He  said  of  the  fruitless 
tree,  "It  is  hewn  down/* 

It  is  believed  by  many  that  a  certain  magis 
trate,  who  lived  in  the  time  of  Jesus,  left  this 
record:  "His  rebuke  is  fearful.'*  The  strong 
language  of  our  Master  confirms  this  descrip 
tion. 

The  only  civil  sentence  which  He  had  for 
error  was,  "Get  thee  behind  Me,  Satan/*  Still 
stronger  evidence  that  Jesus*  reproof  was 
pointed  and  pungent  is  in  His  own  words — 
showing  the  necessity  for  such  forcible  utter 
ance,  when  He  cast  out  devils  and  healed  the 
sick  and  sinful.  The  relinquishment  of  error 
deprives  material  sense  of  its  false  claims. 

Audible  prayer  is  impressive;  it  gives  mo 
mentary  solemnity  and  elevation  to  thought; 
but  does  it  produce  any  lasting  benefit  ?  Look 
ing  deeply  into  these  things,  we  find  that  "a 
zeal .  .  .  not  according  to  knowledge,*'  gives  oc 
casion  for  reaction  unfavorable  to  spiritual 
growth,  sober  resolve,  and  wholesome  per 
ception  of  God's  requirements.  The  motives 


for  verbal  prayer  may  embrace  too  much  love 
of  applause  to  induce  or  encourage  Christian 
sentiment. 

Physical  sensation,  not  Soul,  produces  ma 
terial  ecstasy,  and  emotions.  If  spiritual  sense 
always  guided  men  at  such  times,  there  would 
grow  out  of  those  ecstatic  moments  a  higher 
experience  and  a  better  life,  with  more  devout 
self-abnegation,  and  purity.  A  self-satisfied 
ventilation  of  fervent  sentiments  never  makes 
a  Christian.  God  is  not  influenced  by  man. 
The  "  divine  ear  "  is  not  an  auditorial  nerve.  It 
is  the  all-hearing  and  all -knowing  Mind,  to 
whom  each  want  of  man  is  always  known,  and 
by  whom  it  will  be  supplied. 

The  danger  from  audible  prayer  is,  that  it 
may  lead  us  into  temptation.  By  it  we  may 
become  involuntary  hypocrites,  uttering  de 
sires  which  are  not  real,  and  consoling  our 
selves  in  the  midst  of  sin,  with  the  recollection 
that  we  have  prayed  over  it — or  mean  to  ask 
forgiveness  at  some  later  day.  Hypocrisy  is 
fatal  to  religion. 

A  wordy  prayer  may  afford  a  quiet  sense  of 
self -justification,  though  it  makes  the  sinner  a 


hypocrite.  We  never  need  despair  of  an  hon 
est  heart;  but  there  is  little  hope  for  those  who 
only  come  spasmodically  face  to  face  with  their 
wickedness,  and  then  seek  to  hide  it.  Their 
prayers  are  indexes  which  do  not  correspond 
with  their  character.  They  hold  secret  fellow 
ship  with  sin ;  and  such  externals  are  spoken  of 
by  Jesus  as  "  like  unto  whited  sepulchres  .  .  . 
full  of  all  uncleanness." 

If  a  man,  though  apparently  fervent  and 
prayerful,  is  impure,  and  therefore  insincere, 
what  must  be  the  comment  upon  him?  If  he 
had  reached  the  loftiness  of  his  prayer,  there 
would  be  no  occasion  for  such  comment.  If 
we  feel  the  aspiration,  humility,  gratitude,  and 
love  which  our  words  express — this  God  ac 
cepts;  and  it  is  wise  not  to  try  to  deceive  our 
selves  or  others,  for  "  there  is  nothing  covered 
that  shall  not  be  revealed/'  Professions  and 
audible  prayers  are  like  charity  in  one  respect 
— they  "cover  a  multitude  of  sins."  Praying 
for  humility,  with  whatever  fervency  of  ex 
pression,  does  not  always  mean  a  desire  for  it. 
If  we  turn  away  from  the  poor,  we  are  not 
ready  to  receive  the  reward  of  Him  who  blesses 


the  poor.  We  confess  to  having  a  very  wicked 
heart,  and  ask  that  it  may  be  laid  bare  before 
us;  but  do  we  not  already  know  more  of  this 
heart  than  we  are  willing  to  have  our  neighbor 
see? 

We  ought  to  examine  ourselves,  and  learn 
what  is  the  affection  and  purpose  of  the  heart ; 
for  this  alone  can  show  us  what  we  honestly 
are.  If  a  friend  informs  us  of  a  fault,  do  we 
listen  to  the  rebuke  patiently,  and  credit  what 
is  said  ?  Do  we  not  rather  give  thanks  that  we 
are  "not  as  other  men?"  During  many  years 
the  author  has  been  most  grateful  for  merited 
rebuke.  The  sting  lies  in  unmerited  censure — 
in  the  falsehood  which  does  no  one  any  good. 

The  test  of  all  prayer  lies  in  the  answer  to 
these  questions :  Do  we  love  our  neighbor  better 
because  of  this  asking?  Do  we  pursue  the  old 
selfishness,  satisfied  with  having  prayed  for 
something  better,  though  we  give  no  evidence 
of  the  sincerity  of  our  requests  by  living  con 
sistently  with  our  prayer?  If  selfishness  has 
given  place  to  kindness,  we  shall  regard  our 
neighbor  unselfishly,  and  bless  them  that  curse 
us ;  but  we  shall  never  meet  this  great  duty  by 


simply  asking  that  it  may  be  done.  There  is  a 
cross  to  be  taken  up,  before  we  can  enjoy  the 
fruition  of  our  hope  and  faith. 

Dost  thou  "love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all 
thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all 
thy  mind?"  This  command  includes  much — 
even  the  surrender  of  all  merely  material  sen 
sation,  affection,  and  worship.  This  is  the  El 
Dorado  of  Christianity.  It  involves  the  Sci 
ence  of  Life,  and  recognizes  only  the  divine 
control  of  Spirit,  wherein  Soul  is  our  master, 
and  material  sense  and  human  will  have  no 
place. 

Are  you  willing  to  leave  all  for  Christ,  for 
Truth,  and  so  be  counted  among  sinners?  No! 
Do  you  really  desire  to  attain  this  point?  No! 
Then  why  make  long  prayers  about  it,  and  ask 
to  be  Christians,  since  you  care  not  to  tread  in 
the  footsteps  of  our  dear  Master?  If  unwilling 
to  follow  His  example,  wherefore  pray  with 
the  lips  that  you  may  be  partakers  of  His  nat 
ure?  Consistent  prayer  is  the  desire  to  do 
right.  Prayer  means  that  we  desire  to,  and 
will,  walk  in  the  light  so  far  as  we  receive  it, 
even  though  with  bleeding  footsteps,  and  wait- 


ing  patiently  on  the  Lord,  will  leave  our  real 
desires  to  be  rewarded  by  Him. 

The  world  must  grow  to  the  spiritual  un 
derstanding  of  prayer.  If  good  enough  to 
profit  by  Jesus'  cup  of  earthly  sorrows,  God 
will  sustain  us  under  these  sorrows.  Until  we 
are  thus  divinely  qualified,  and  willing  to  drink 
His  cup,  millions  of  vain  repetitions  will  never 
pour  into  prayer  the  unction  of  Spirit,  in  dem 
onstration  of  power,  and  "  with  signs  follow 
ing.'*  Christian  Science  reveals  a  necessity  for 
overcoming  the  world,  the  flesh  and  evil,  and 
thus  destroying  all  error. 

Seeking  is  not  sufficient.  It  is  striving  which 
enables  us  to  enter.  Spiritual  attainments  open 
the  door  to  a  higher  understanding  of  the  di 
vine  Life. 

One  of  the  forms  of  worship  in  Thibet  is  to 
carry  a  praying-machine  through  the  streets, 
and  stop  at  the  doors  to  earn  a  penny  by  grind 
ing  out  a  prayer;  whereas  civilization  pays  for 
clerical  prayers,  in  lofty  edifices.  Is  the  differ 
ence  very  great,  after  all? 

Experience  teaches  us  that  we  do  not  al 
ways  receive  the  blessings  we  ask  for  in  prayer. 


320 

There  is  some  misapprehension  of  the  source 
and  means  of  all  goodness  and  blessedness,  or 
we  should  certainly  receive  what  we  ask  for, 
The  Scriptures  say:  "Ye  ask,  and  receive  not, 
because  ye  ask  amiss,  that  ye  may  consume  it 
upon  your  lusts."  What  we  desire  and  ask  for 
it  is  not  always  best  for  us  to  receive.  In  this 
case  infinite  Love  will  not  grant  the  request. 
Do  you  ask  Wisdom  to  be  merciful,  and  not 
punish  sin?  Then  "ye  ask  amiss."  Without 
punishment,  sin  would  multiply.  Jesus'  prayer, 
"forgive  us  our  debts,"  specified  also  the  terms 
of  forgiveness.  When  forgiving  the  adulterous 
woman  He  said,  "  Go,  and  sin  no  more." 

A  magistrate  sometimes  remits  the  penalty, 
but  this  may  be  no  moral  benefit  to  the  crim 
inal;  and  at  best,  it  only  saves  him  from  one 
form  of  punishment.  The  moral  law,  which 
has  the  right  to  acquit  or  condemn,  always  de 
mands  restitution,  before  mortals  can  "go  up 
higher."  Broken  law  brings  penalty,  in  order 
to  compel  this  progress. 

Mere  legal  pardon  (and  there  is  no  other,  for 
divine  Principle  never  pardons  our  sins  or  mis 
takes  till  they  are  corrected)  leaves  the  offender 


free  to  repeat  the  offence ;  if,  indeed,  he  has  not 
already  suffered  sufficiently  from  vice  to  make 
him  turn  from  it  with  loathing.  Truth  be 
stows  no  pardon  upon  error,  but  wipes  it  out  in 
the  most  effectual  manner.  Jesus  suffered  for 
our  sins,  not  to  annul  the  divine  sentence 
against  an  individual's  sin,  but  to  show  that  sin 
must  bring  inevitable  suffering. 

Petitions  only  bring  to  mortals  the  results  of 
their  own  faith.  We  know  that  a  desire  for 
holiness  is  requisite  in  order  to  gain  it ;  but  if  we 
desire  holiness  above  all  else,  we  shall  sacrifice 
everything  for  it.  We  must  be  willing  to  do 
this,  that  we  may  walk  securely  in  the  only 
practical  road  to  holiness.  Prayer  alone  can 
not  change  the  unalterable  Truth,  or  give  us  an 
understanding  of  it ;  but  prayer  coupled  with  a 
fervent  habitual  desire  to  know  and  do  the  will 
of  God  will  bring  us  into  all  Truth.  Such  a  de 
sire  has  little  need  of  audible  expression.  It  is 
best  expressed  in  thought  and  life. 


APPENDIX  E 
Reverend  Heber  Newton  on  Christian  Science : 

To  begin,  then,  at  the  beginning,  Christian 
Science  accepts  the  work  of  healing  sickness  as 
an  integral  part  of  the  discipleship  of  Jesus 
Christ.  In  Christ  it  finds,  what  the  Church  has 
always  recognized,  theoretically,  though  it  has 
practically  ignored  the  fact — the  Great  Physi 
cian.  That  Christ  healed  the  sick,  we  none  of 
us  question.  It  stands  plainly  upon  the  record. 
This  ministry  of  healing  was  too  large  a  part  of 
His  work  to  be  left  out  from  any  picture  of  that 
life.  Such  service  was  not  an  incident  of  His 
career — it  was  an  essential  element  of  that  ca 
reer.  It  was  an  integral  factor  in  His  mission. 
The  Evangelists  leave  us  no  possibility  of  con 
fusion  on  this  point.  Co-equal  with  his  work  of 
instruction  and  inspiration  was  His  work  of 
healing. 

The  records  make  it  equally  clear  that  the 


Master  laid  His  charge  upon  His  disciples  to  do 
as  He  had  done.  "  When  He  had  called  unto 
Him  His  twelve  disciples,  He  gave  them  power 
over  unclean  spirits,  to  cast  them  out,  and  to 
heal  all  manner  of  sickness  and  all  manner  of 
disease."1  In  sending  them  forth,  "He  com 
manded  them,  saying,  ...  As  ye  go,  preach, 
saying,  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand. 
Heal  the  sick,  cleanse  the  lepers,  raise  the  dead, 
cast  out  demons.'*2 

That  the  twelve  disciples  undertook  to  do 
the  Master's  work  of  healing,  and  that  they,  in 
their  measure,  succeeded,  seems  beyond  ques 
tion.  They  found  in  themselves  the  same  pow 
er  that  the  Master  found  in  Himself,  and  they 
used  it  as  He  had  used  His  power.  The  record 
of  The  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  if  at  all  trustworthy 
history,  shows  that  they,  too,  healed  the  sick. 

Beyond  the  circle  of  the  original  twelve,  it  is 
equally  clear  that  the  early  disciples  believed 
themselves  charged  with  the  same  mission,  and 
that  they  sought  to  fulfil  it.  The  records  of  the 
early  Church  make  it  indisputable  that  powers 
of  healing  were  recognized  as  among  the  gifts  of 

1Matt.  x.,  n.  */&.,  x.,  5,  7,  8, 


324 

the  Spirit.  St.  Paul's  letters  render  it  certain 
that  these  gifts  were  not  a  privilege  of  the  origi 
nal  twelve,  merely,  but  that  they  were  the  her 
itage  into  which  all  the  disciples  entered. 

Beyond  the  era  of  the  primitive  Church, 
through  several  generations,  the  early  Chris 
tians  felt  themselves  called  to  the  same  ministry 
of  healing,  and  enabled  with  the  same  secret  of 
power.  Through  wellnigh  three  centuries,  the 
gifts  of  healing  appear  to  have  been,  more  or 
less,  recognized  and  exercised  in  the  Church. 
Through  those  generations,  however,  there  was 
a  gradual  disuse  of  this  power,  following  upon 
a  failing  recognition  of  its  possession.  That 
which  was  originally  the  rule  became  the  ex 
ception.  By  degrees,  the  sense  of  authority 
and  power  to  heal  passed  out  from  the  con 
sciousness  of  the  Church.  It  ceased  to  be  a 
sign  of  the  indwelling  Spirit.  For  fifteen  cen 
turies,  the  recognition  of  this  authority  and 
power  has  been  altogether  exceptional.  Here 
and  there,  through  the  history  of  these  cen 
turies,  there  have  been  those  who  have  entered 
into  this  belief  of  their  own  privilege  and  duty, 
and  have  used  the  gift  which  they  recognized. 


325 

The  Church  has  never  been  left  without  a  line 
of  witnesses  to  this  aspect  of  the  discipleship  of 
Christ.  But  she  has  come  to  accept  it  as  the 
normal  order  of  things  that  what  was  once  the 
rule  in  the  Christian  Church  should  be  now 
only  the  exception.  Orthodoxy  has  framed  a 
theory  of  the  words  of  Jesus  to  account  for  this 
strange  departure  of  His  Church  from  them.  It 
teaches  us  to  believe  that  His  example  was  not 
meant  to  be  followed,  in  this  respect,  by  all  His 
disciples.  The  power  of  healing  which  was  in 
Him  was  a  purely  exceptional  power.  It  was 
used  as  an  evidence  of  His  divine  mission.  It 
was  a  miraculous  gift.  The  gift  of  working 
miracles  was  not  bestowed  upon  His  Church  at 
large.  His  original  disciples,  the  twelve  apos 
tles,  received  this  gift,  as  a  necessity  of  the 
critical  epoch  of  Christianity — the  founding  of 
the  Church.  Traces  of  the  power  lingered  on, 
in  weakening  activity,  until  they  gradually 
ceased,  and  the  normal  condition  of  the  Church 
was  entered  upon,  in  which  miracles  are  no 
longer  possible. 

We  accept  this,  unconsciously,  as  the  true 
state  of  things  in  Christianity.     But  it  is  a  con- 


326 

ception  which  will  not  bear  a  moment's  ex 
amination.  There  is  not  the  slightest  sugges 
tion  upon  record  that  Christ  set  any  limit  to 
this  charge  which  He  gave  His  disciples.  On 
the  contrary,  there  are  not  lacking  hints  that 
He  looked  for  the  possession  and  exercise  of 
this  power  wherever  His  spirit  breathed  in  men. 
Even  if  the  concluding  paragraph  of  St. 
Mark's  Gospel  were  a  later  appendix,  it  may 
none  the  less  have  been  a  faithful  echo  of  words 
of  the  Master,  as  it  certainly  is  a  trustworthy 
record  of  the  belief  of  the  early  Christians  as  to 
the  thought  of  Jesus  concerning  His  followers. 
In  that  interesting  passage,  Jesus,  after  His 
death,  appeared  to  the  eleven,  and  formally 
commissioned  them,  again,  to  take  up  His 
work  in  the  world;  bidding  them,  "Go  ye  into 
all  the  world  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every 
creature."  "  And  these  signs,"  He  tells  them, 
"  shall  follow  them  that  believe  " — not  the  apos 
tles  only,  but  "them  that  believe,"  without 
limit  of  time;  "in  My  name  they  shall  cast  out 
devils  .  .  .  they  shall  lay  hands  on  the  sick  and 
they  shall  recover. ' ' *  The  concluding  discourse 

1  Mark  xvi.,  15,  17,  18. 


327 

to  the  disciples,  recorded  in  the  Gospel  accord 
ing  to  St.  John,  affirms  the  same  expectation 
on  the  part  of  Jesus;  emphasizing  it  in  His 
solemn  way:  "Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you, 
He  that  believeth  on  Me,  the  works  that  I  do 
shall  he  do  also;  and  greater  works  than  these 
shall  he  do,"1 

1  John  xiv.,  12. 


APPENDIX  F 

FEW  will  deny  that  an  intelligence  apart 
from  man  formed  and  governs  the  spiritual  uni 
verse  and  man ;  and  this  intelligence  is  the  eternal 
Mind,  and  neither  matter  nor  man  created  this 
intelligence  and  divine  Principle;  nor  can  this 
Principle  produce  aught  unlike  itself.  All  that 
we  term  sin,  sickness,  and  death  is  comprised 
in  the  belief  of  matter.  The  realm  of  the  real 
is  spiritual ;  the  opposite  of  Spirit  is  matter;  and 
the  opposite  of  the  real  is  unreal  or  material. 
Matter  is  an  error  of  statement,  for  there  is  no 
matter.  This  error  of  premises  leads  to  error 
of  conclusion  in  every  statement  of  matter  as  a 
basis.  Nothing  we  can  say  or  believe  regard 
ing  matter  is  true,  except  that  matter  is  unreal, 
simply  a  belief  that  has  its  beginning  and  end 
ing. 

The  conservative  firm  called  matter  and 
mind  God  never  formed.  The  unerring  and 
eternal  Mind  destroys  this  imaginary  copartner- 


329 

ship,  formed  only  to  be  dissolved  in  a  manner 
and  at  a  period  unknown.  This  copartner 
ship  is  obsolete.  Placed  under  the  microscope 
of  metaphysics  matter  disappears.  Only  by 
understanding  there  are  not  two,  matter  and 
mind,  is  a  logical  and  correct  conclusion  ob 
tained  by  either  one.  Science  gathers  not 
grapes  of  thorns  or  figs  of  thistles.  Intelligence 
never  produced  non-intelligence,  such  as  mat 
ter:  the  immortal  never  produced  mortality, 
good  never  resulted  in  evil.  The  science  of 
Mind  shows  conclusively  that  matter  is  a  myth. 
Metaphysics  are  above  physics,  and  drag  not 
matter,  or  what  is  termed  that,  into  one  of  its 
premises  or  conclusions.  Metaphysics  resolves 
things  into  thoughts,  and  exchanges  the  ob 
jects  of  sense  for  the  ideas  of  Soul.  These 
ideas  are  perfectly  tangible  and  real  to  con 
sciousness,  and  they  have  this  advantage — 
they  are  eternal.  Mind  and  its  thoughts  com 
prise  the  whole  of  God,  the  universe,  and  of  man. 
Reason  and  revelation  coincide  with  this  state 
ment,  and  support  its  proof  every  hour,  for 
nothing  is  harmonious  or  eternal  that  is  not 
spiritual:  the  realization  of  this  will  bring  out 


330 

"objects  from  a  higher  source  of  thought;  hence 
more  beautiful  and  immortal. 

The  fact  of  spiritualization  produces  results 
in  striking  contrast  to  the  farce  of  materializa 
tion:  the  one  produces  the  results  of  chastity 
and  purity,  the  other  the  downward  tendencies 
and  earthward  gravitation  of  sensualism  and 
impurity. 

The  exalting  and  healing  effects  of  metaphys 
ics  show  their  fountain.  Nothing  in  pathology 
has  exceeded  the  application  of  metaphysics. 
Through  mind  alone  we  have  prevented  dis 
ease  and  preserved  health.  In  cases  of  chronic 
and  acute  diseases,  in  their  severest  forms,  we 
have  changed  the  secretions,  renewed  structure, 
and  restored  health;  have  elongated  shortened 
limbs,  relaxed  rigid  muscles,  made  cicatrized 
joints  supple;  restored  carious  bones  to  healthy 
conditions,  renewed  that  which  is  termed  the 
lost  substance  of  the  lungs ;  and  restored  healthy 
organizations  where  disease  was  organic  instead 
of  functional. 


MRS.  EDDY  IN  ERROR 

I  FEEL  almost  sure  that  Mrs.  Eddy's  inspira 
tion-works  are  getting  out  of  repair.  I  think 
so  because  they  made  some  errors  in  a  state 
ment  which  she  uttered  through  the  press  on 
the  i  yth  of  January.  Not  large  ones,  perhaps, 
still  it  is  a  friend's  duty  to  straighten  such 
things  out  and  get  them  right  when  he  can. 
Therefore  I  will  put  my  other  duties  aside  for  a 
moment  and  undertake  this  helpful  service. 
She  said  as  follows: 

"  In  view  of  the  circulation  of  certain  criti 
cisms  from  the  pen  of  Mark  Twain,  I  submit 
the  following  statement: 

"  It  is  a  fact,  well  understood,  that  I  begged 
the  students  who  first  gave  me  the  endearing 
appellative  'mother'  not  to  name  me  thus. 
But,  without  my  consent,  that  word  spread  like 
wildfire.  I  still  must  think  the  name  is  not  ap 
plicable  to  me.  I  stand  in  relation  to  this  cen 
tury  as  a  Christian  discoverer,  founder,  and 


33* 

leader.  I  regard  self-deification  as  blasphe 
mous;  I  may  be  more  loved,  but  I  am  less 
lauded,  pampered,  provided  for,  and  cheered 
than  others  before  me — and  wherefore?  Be 
cause  Christian  Science  is  not  yet  popular,  and 
I  refuse  adulation. 

"  My  visit  to  the  Mother-Church  after  it  was 
built  and  dedicated  pleased  me,  and  the  situa 
tion  was  satisfactory.  The  dear  members 
wanted  to  greet  me  with  escort  and  the  ringing 
of  bells,  but  I  declined,  and  went  alone  in  my 
carriage  to  the  church,  entered  it,  and  knelt  in 
thanks  upon  the  steps  of  its  altar.  There  the 
f oresplendor  of  the  beginnings  of  truth  fell  mys 
teriously  upon  my  spirit.  I  believe  in  one 
Christ,  teach  one  Christ,  know  of  but  one  Christ. 
I  believe  in  but  one  incarnation,  one  Mother 
Mary,  and  know  I  am  not  that  one,  and  never 
claimed  to  be.  It  suffices  me  to  learn  the  Sci 
ence  of  the  Scriptures  relative  to  this  subject. 

"  Christian  Scientists  have  no  quarrel  with 
Protestants,  Catholics,  or  any  other  sect.  They 
need  to  be  understood  as  following  the  divine 
Principle — God,  Love — and  not  imagined  to  be 
unscientific  worshippers  of  a  human  being. 

"In  the  aforesaid  article,  of  which  I  have 
seen  only  extracts,  Mark  Twain's  wit  was  not 


333 

wasted  in  certain  directions.  Christian  Science 
eschews  divine  rights  in  human  beings.  If  the 
individual  governed  human  consciousness,  my 
statement  of  Christian  Science  would  be  dis 
proved,  but  to  understand  the  spiritual  idea  is 
essential  to  demonstrate  Science  and  its  pure 
monotheism — one  God,  one  Christ,  no  idolatry, 
no  human  propaganda.  Jesus  taught  and 
proved  that  what  feeds  a  few  feeds  all.  His 
life-work  subordinated  the  material  to  the  spir 
itual,  and  He  left  this  legacy  of  truth  to  man 
kind.  His  metaphysics  is  not  the  sport  of  phi 
losophy,  religion,  or  Science;  rather  it  is  the 
pith  and  finale  of  them  all. 

"  I  have  not  the  inspiration  or  aspiration  to 
be  a  first  or  second  Virgin-Mother — her  dupli 
cate,  antecedent,  or  subsequent.  What  I  am 
remains  to  be  proved  by  the  good  I  do.  We 
need  much  humility,  wisdom,  and  love  to  per 
form  the  functions  of  foreshadowing  and  fore 
tasting  heaven  within  us.  This  glory  is  molten 
in  the  furnace  of  affliction." 

She  still  thinks  the  name  of  Our  Mother  not 
applicable  to  her ;  and  she  is  also  able  to  remem 
ber  that  it  distressed  her  when  it  was  conferred 
upon  her,  and  that  she  begged  to  have  it  sup- 


334 

pressed.  Her  memory  is  at  fault  here,  If  she 
will  take  her  By-laws,  and  refer  to  Section  i 
of  Article  XXII.,  written  with  her  own  hand — 
she  will  find  that  she  has  reserved  that  title  to 
herself,  and  is  so  pleased  with  it,  and  so — may 
we  say  jealous? — about  it,  that  she  threatens 
with  excommunication  any  sister  Scientist  who 
shall  call  herself  by  it.  This  is  that  Section  i : 

"  The  Title  of  Mother.  In  the  year  1895  loyal 
Christian  Scientists  had  given  to  the  author 
of  their  text-book,  the  Founder  of  Christian 
Science,  the  individual,  endearing  term  of 
Mother.  Therefore,  if  a  student  of  Christian 
Science  shall  apply  this  title,  either  to  herself 
or  to  others,  except  as  the'  term  for  kinship  ac 
cording  to  the  flesh,  it  shall  be  regarded  by  the 
Church  as  an  indication  of  disrespect  for  their 
Pastor  Emeritus,  and  unfitness  to  be  a  member 
of  the  Mother-Church." 

Mrs.  Eddy  is  herself  the  Mother-Church — its 
powers  and  authorities  are  in  her  possession 
solely — and  she  can  abolish  that  title  whenever 
it  may  please  her  to  do  so.  She  has  only  to 
command  her  people,  wherever  they  may  be  in 


335 

the  earth,  to  use  it  no  more,  and  it  will 
never  be  uttered  again.  She  is  aware  of 
this. 

It  may  be  that  she  "  refuses  adulation  "  when 
she  is  not  awake,  but  when  she  is  awake  she 
encourages  it  and  propagates  it  in  that  museum 
called  "Our  Mother's  Room,"  in  her  Church 
in  Boston.  She  could  abolish  that  institution 
with  a  word,  if  she  wanted  to.  She  is  aware  of 
that.  I  will  say  a  further  word  about  the  mu 
seum  presently. 

Further  down  the  column,  her  memory  is  un 
faithful  again: 

"  I  believe  in  ...  but  one  Mother  Mary,  and 
know  I  am  not  that  one,  and  never  claimed  to 
be." 

At  a  session  of  the  National  Christian 
Science  Association,  held  in  the  city  of  New 
York  on  the  2yth  of  May,  1890,  the  secretary 
was  "  instructed  to  send  to  our  Mother  greetings 
and  words  of  affection  from  her  assembled  chil 
dren/'1 

1  Page  24,  Official  Report. 


336 

Her  telegraphic  response  was  read  to  the  As 
sociation  at  next  day's  meeting: 

"All  hail!  He  hath  filled  the  hungry  with 
good  things  and  the  sick  hath  He  not  sent 
empty  away. — MOTHER  MARY."1 

Which  Mother  Mary  is  this  one?  Are  there 
two?  If  so,  she  is  both  of  them;  for,  when  she 
signed  this  telegram  in  this  satisfied  and  unpro- 
testing  way,  the  Mother-title  which  she  was 
going  to  so  strenuously  object  to,  and  put  from 
her  with  humility,  and  seize  with  both  hands, 
and  reserve  as  her  sole  property,  and  protect 
her  monopoly  of  it  with  a  stern  By-law,  while 
recognizing  with  diffidence  that  it  was  "not 
applicable"  to  her  (then  and  to-day) — that 
Mother- title  was  not  yet  born,  and  would  not  be 
offered  to  her  until  five  years  later.  The  date 
of  the  above  "  Mother  Mary"  is  1890;  the  "in 
dividual,  endearing  title  of  Mother  "  was  given 
her  "in  1895" — according  to  her  own  testi 
mony.  See  her  By-law  quoted  above. 

In  his  opening  Address  to  that  Convention  of 

1  Page  24,  Official  Report. 


337 


1890,  the  President  recognized  this  Mary — our 
Mary — and  abolished  all  previous  ones.  He 
said: 

"  There  is  but  one  Moses,  one  Jesus ;  and  there 
is  but  one  Mary.'*1 

The  confusions  being  now  dispersed,  we 
have  this  clarified  result: 

There  had  been  a  Moses  at  one  time,  and  only 
one;  there  had  been  a  Jesus  at  one  time,  and 
only  one ;  there  is  a  Mary  and  "  only  one.' '  She 
is  not  a  Has  Been,  she  is  an  Is — the  "  Author  of 
Science  and  Health;  and  we  cannot  ignore 
her."2 

1.  In  1890,  there  was  but  one  Mother  Mary. 
The  President  said  so. 

2.  Mrs.  Eddy  was  that  one.     She  said  so,  in 
signing  the  telegram. 

3.  Mrs.  Eddy  was  not  that  one — for  she  says 
so,  in  her  Associated  Press  utterance  of  Jan 
uary  i  yth. 

4.  And  has  "  never  claimed  to  be  "  that  one— 
unless  the  signature  to  the  telegram  is  a  claim. 

1  Page  13,  Official  Report.  2  Ibid. 


338 

Thus  it  stands  proven  and  established  that 
she  is  that  Mary  and  isn't,  and  thought  she  was 
and  knows  she  wasn't.  That  much  is  clear. 

She  is  also  "The  Mother/'  by  the  election  of 
1895,  and  did  not  want  the  title,  and  thinks  it 
is  not  applicable  to  her,  and  will  excommunicate 
any  one  that  tries  to  take  it  away  from  her. 
So  that  is  clear. 

I  think  that  the  only  really  troublesome  con 
fusion  connected  with  these  particular  matters 
has  arisen  from  the  name — Mary.  Much  vex 
ation,  much  misunderstanding,  could  have  been 
avoided  if  Mrs.  Eddy  had  used  some  of  her 
other  names  in  place  of  that  one.  "Mother 
Mary"  was  certain  to  stir  up  discussion.  It 
would  have  been  much  better  if  she  had  sign 
ed  the  telegram  "  Mother  Baker  " ;  then  there 
would  have  been  no  Biblical  competition,  and, 
of  course,  that  is  a  thing  to  avoid.  But  it  is 
not  too  late,  yet. 

I  wish  to  break  in  here  with  a  parenthesis, 
and  then  take  up  this  examination  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  Claim1  of  January  iyth  again. 

1 ' '  Claim.' '  In  Christian  Science  terminology, ' '  Claims  " 
are  errors  of  mortal  mind,  fictions  of  the  imagination. 


339 

The  history  of  her  " Mother  Mary"  telegram 
— as  told  to  me  by  one  who  ought  to  be  a  very 
good  authority  —  is  curious  and  interesting. 
The  telegram  ostensibly  quotes  verse  53  from 
the  "  Magnificat,"  but  really  makes  some  pretty 
formidable  changes  in  it.  This  is  St.  Luke's 
version : 

"  He  hath  filled  the  hungry  with  good  things, 
and  the  rich  He  hath  sent  empty  away." 

This  is  "Mother  Mary's"  telegraphed  ver 
sion: 

"  He  hath  filled  the  hungry  with  good  things, 
and  the  sick  hath  He  not  sent  empty  away."1 

To  judge  by  the  Official  Report,  the  bursting 
of  this  bombshell  in  that  massed  convention  of 
trained  Christians  created  no  astonishment, 
since  it  caused  no  remark,  and  the  business  of 
the  convention  went  tranquilly  on,  thereafter, 
as  if  nothing  had  happened. 

Did  those  people  detect  those  changes?     We 

1  Page  24,  Official  Report. 


340 

cannot  know.  I  think  they  must  have  noticed 
them,  the  wording  of  St.  Luke's  verse  being  as 
familiar  to  all  Christians  as  is  the  wording  of 
the  Beatitudes;  and  I  think  that  the  reason 
the  new  version  provoked  no  surprise  and  no 
comment  was,  that  the  assemblage  took  it  for  a 
"Key" — a  spiritualized  explanation  of  verse 
53,  newly  sent  down  from  heaven  through  Mrs. 
Eddy.  For  all  Scientists  study  their  Bibles 
diligently,  and  they  kno.w  their  Magnificat.  I 
believe  that  their  confidence  in  the  authenticity 
of  Mrs.  Eddy's  inspirations  is  so  limitless  and 
so  firmly  established  that  no  change,  however 
violent,  which  she  might  make  in  a  Bible  text 
could  disturb  their  composure  or  provoke  from 
them  a  protest. 

Her  improved  rendition  of  verse  53  went  into 
the  convention's  report  and  appeared  in  a  New 
York  paper  the  next  day.  The  (at  that  time) 
Scientist  whom  I  mentioned  a  minute  ago,  and 
who  had  not  been  present  at  the  convention, 
saw  it  and  marvelled;  marvelled  and  was  in 
dignant — indignant  with  the  printer  or  the 
telegrapher,  for  making  so  careless  and  so 
dreadful  an  error.  And  greatly  distressed,  too ; 


for,  of  course,  the  newspaper  people  would  fall 
foul  of  it,  and  be  sarcastic,  and  make  fun  of  it, 
and  have  a  blithe  time  over  it,  and  be  properly 
thankful  for  the  chance.  It  shows  how  inno 
cent  he  was ;  it  shows  that  he  did  not  know  the 
limitations  of  newspaper  men  in  the  matter  of 
Biblical  knowledge.  The  new  verse  53  raised 
no  insurrection  in  the  press;  in  fact,  it  was  not 
even  remarked  upon ;  I  could  have  told  him  the 
boys  would  not  know  there  was  anything  the 
matter  with  it.  I  have  been  a  newspaper  man 
myself,  and  in  those  days  I  had  my  limitations 
like  the  others. 

The  Scientist  hastened  to  Concord  and  told 
Mrs.  Eddy  what  a  disastrous  mistake  had  been 
made,  but  he  found  to  his  bewilderment  that 
she  was  tranquil  about  it,  and  was  not  propos 
ing  to  correct  it.  He  was  not  able  to  get  her 
to  promise  to  make  a  correction.  He  asked  her 
secretary  if  he  had  heard  aright  when  the  tele 
gram  was  dictated  to  him;  the  secretary  said  he 
had,  and  took  the  filed  copy  of  it  and  verified 
its  authenticity  by  comparing  it  with  the  sten 
ographic  notes. 

Mrs.    Eddy   did  make   the   correction,    two 


342 

months  later,  in  her  official  organ.  It  attracted 
no  attention  among  the  Scientists ;  and,  naturally, 
none  elsewhere,  for  that  periodical's  circulation 
was  practically  confined  to  disciples  of  the  cult. 

That  is  the  tale  as  it  was  told  to  me  by  an 
ex-Scientist.  Verse  53 — renovated  and  spirit 
ualized — had  a  narrow  escape  from  a  tremen 
dous  celebrity.  The  newspaper  men  would 
have  made  it  as  famous  as  the  assassination 
of  Cassar,  but  for  their  limitations. 

T,o  return  to  the  Claim.  I  find  myself  greatly 
embarrassed  by  Mrs.  Eddy's  remark:  "  I  regard 
self-deification  as  blasphemous."  If  she  is 
right  about  that,  I  have  written  a  half -ream  of 
manuscript  this  past  week  which  I  must  not 
print,  either  in  the  book  which  I  am  writing,  or 
elsewhere :  for  it  goes  into  that  very  matter  with 
extensive  elaboration,  citing,  in  detail,  words 
and  acts  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  which  seem  to  me  to 
prove  that  she  is  a  faithful  and  untiring  wor 
shipper  of  herself,  and  has  carried  self-deifica 
tion  to  a  length  which  has  not  been  before  vent 
ured  in  ages.  If  ever.  There  is  not  room 
enough  in  this  chapter  for  that  Survey,  but  I 
can  epitomize  a  portion  of  it  here. 


343 

With  her  own  untaught  and  untrained  mind, 
and  without  outside  help,  she  has  erected  upon 
a  firm  and  lasting  foundation  the  most  minutely 
perfect,  and  wonderful,  and  smoothly  and  ex 
actly  working,  and  best  safe-guarded  system  of 
government  that  has  yet  been  devised  in  the 
world,  as  I  believe,  and  as  I  am  sure  I  could 
prove  if  I  had  room  for  my  documentary  evi 
dences  here. 

It  is  a  despotism  (on  this  democratic  soil) ;  a 
sovereignty  more  absolute  than  the  Roman 
Papacy,  more  absolute  than  the  Russian  Czar- 
ship;  it  has  not  a  single  power,  not  a  shred  of 
authority,  legislative  or  executive,  which  is  not 
lodged  solely  in  the  sovereign;  all  its  dreams, 
its  functions,  its  energies,  have  a  single  object, 
a  single  reason  for  existing,  and  only  the 
one — to  build  to  the  sky  the  glory  of  the 
sovereign,  and  keep  it  bright  to  the  end  of 
time. 

Mrs.  Eddy  is  the  sovereign;  she  devised  that 
great  place  for  herself,  she  occupies  that  throne. 

In  1895,  she  wrote  a  little  primer,  a  little 
body  of  autocratic  laws,  called  the  Manual  of 
The  First  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist,  and  put 


344 

those  laws  in  force,  in  permanence.  Her  gov 
ernment  is  all  there ;  all  in  that  deceptively  in 
nocent-looking  little  book,  that  cunning  little 
devilish  book,  that  slumbering  little  brown  vol 
cano,  with  hell  in  its  bowels.  In  that  book  she 
has  planned  out  her  system,  and  classified  and 
defined  its  purposes  and  powers. 

MAIN    PARTS   OF   THE   MACHINE 

A  Supreme  Church.     At  Boston. 

Branch  Churches.     All  over  the  world. 

One  Pastor  for  the  whole  of  them :  to  wit,  her 
book,  Science  and  Health.  Term  of  the  book's 
office — forever. 

In  every  C.  S.  pulpit,  two  "  Readers,"  a  man 
and  a  woman.  No  talkers,  no  preachers,  in  any 
Church — readers  only.  Readers  of  the  Bible  and 
her  books — no  others.  No  commentators  al 
lowed  to  write  or  print. 

A  Church  Service.  She  has  framed  it — for 
all  the  C.  S.  Churches — selected  its  readings,  its 
prayers,  and  the  hymns  to  be  used,  and  has  ap 
pointed  the  order  of  procedure.  No  changes 
permitted. 


345 

A  Creed.  She  wrote  it.  All  C.  S.  Churches 
must  subscribe  to  it.  No  other  permitted. 

A  Treasury.  At  Boston.  She  carries  the 
key. 

A  C.  S.  Book-Publishing  House.  For  books 
approved  by  her.  No  others  permitted. 

Journals  and  Magazines.  These  are  organs 
of  hers,  and  are  controlled  by  her. 

A  College.     For  teaching  C.  S. 

DISTRIBUTION   OF   THE   MACHINE'S   POWERS   AND 
DIGNITIES 

Supreme  Church. 

Pastor  Emeritus — Mrs.  Eddy. 

Board  of  Directors. 

Board  of  Education. 

Board  of  Finance. 

College  Faculty. 

Various  Committees. 

Treasurer. 

Clerk. 

First  Members  (of  the  Supreme  Church). 

Members  of  the  Supreme  Church. 

It  looks  fair,  it  looks  real,  but  it  is  all  a  fiction. 


346 

Even  the  little  " Pastor  Emeritus"  is  a  fiction. 
Instead  of  being  merely  an  honorary  and  orna 
mental  official,  Mrs.  Eddy  is  the  only  official  in 
the  entire  body  that  has  the  slightest  power. 
In  her  Manual,  she  has  provided  a  prodigality 
of  ways  and  forms  whereby  she  can  rid  herself 
of  any  functionary  in  the  government  when 
ever  she  wants  to.  The  officials  are  all  shadows, 
save  herself;  she  is  the  only  reality.  She  al 
lows  no  one  to  hold  office  more  than  a  year — 
no  one  gets  a  chance  to  become  over-popular 
or  over-useful,  and  dangerous.  "  Excommuni 
cation"  is  the  favorite  penalty — it  is  threat 
ened  at  every  turn.  It  is  evidently  the  pet 
dread  and  terror  of  the  Church's  membership. 

The  member  who  thinks,  without  getting  his 
thought  from  Mrs.  Eddy  before  uttering  it,  is 
banished  permanently.  One  or  two  kinds  of  sin 
ners  can  plead  their  way  back  into  the  fold,  but 
this  one,  never.  To  think — in  the  Supreme 
Church — is  the  New  Unpardonable  Sin. 

To  nearly  every  severe  and  fierce  rule,  Mrs. 
Eddy  adds  this  rivet:  "This  By-law  shall  not 
be  changed  without  the  consent  of  the  Pastor 
Emeritus." 


347 

Mrs.  Eddy  is  the  entire  Supreme  Church,  in 
her  own  person,  in  the  matter  of  powers  and 
authorities. 

Although  she  has  provided  so  many  ways  of 
getting  rid  of  unsatisfactory  members  and  offi 
cials,  she  was  still  afraid  she  might  have  left  a 
life-preserver  lying  around  somewhere,  there 
fore  she  devised  a  rule  to  cover  that  defect.  By 
applying  it,  she  can  excommunicate  (and  this 
is  perpetual  again)  every  functionary  connect 
ed  with  the  Supreme  Church,  and  every  one  of 
the  twenty-five  thousand  members  of  that 
Church,  at  an  hour's  notice — and  do  it  all  by 
herself  without  anybody's  help. 

By  authority  of  this  astonishing  By-law, 
she  has  only  to  say  a  person  connected  with 
that  Church  is  secretly  practising  hypnotism 
or  mesmerism;  whereupon,  immediate  excom 
munication,  without  a  hearing,  is  his  portion! 
She  does  not  have  to  order  a  trial  and  produce 
evidence — her  accusation  is  all  that  is  necessary. 

Where  is  the  Pope?  and  where  the  Czar?  As 
the  ballad  says: 

"  Ask  of  the  winds  that  far  away 
With  fragments  strewed  the  sea!" 


The  Branch  Church's  pulpit  is  occupied  by 
two  "  Readers."  Without  them  the  Branch 
Church  is  as  dead  as  if  its  throat  had  been  cut. 
To  have  control,  then,  of  the  Readers,  is  to 
have  control  of  the  Branch  Churches.  Mrs. 
Eddy  has  that  control — a  control  wholly  with 
out  limit,  a  control  shared  with  no  one. 

1.  No    Reader   can    be    appointed   to    any 
Church  in  the  Christian  Science  world  without 
her  express  approval. 

2.  She  can  summarily  expel  from  his  or  her 
place  any  Reader,  at  home  or  abroad,  by  a 
mere  letter  of  dismissal,  over  her  signature,  and 
without  furnishing  any  reason  for  it,  to  either 
the  congregation  or  the  Reader. 

Thus  she  has  as  absolute  control  over  all 
Branch  Churches  as  she  has  over  the  Supreme 
Church.  This  power  exceeds  the  Pope's. 

In  simple  truth,  she  is  the  only  absolute  sov 
ereign  in  all  Christendom.  The  authority  of  the 
other  sovereigns  has  limits,  hers  has  none. 
None  whatever.  And  her  yoke  does  not  fret, 
does  not  offend.  Many  of  the  subjects  of  the 
other  monarchs  feel  their  yoke,  and  are  restive 
under  it ;  their  loyalty  is  insincere.  It  is  not  so 


349 

with  this  one's  human  property;  their  loyalty 
is  genuine,  earnest,  sincere,  enthusiastic.  The 
sentiment  which  they  feel  for  her  is  one  which 
goes  out  in  sheer  perfection  to  no  other  occu 
pant  of  a  throne ;  for  it  is  love,  pure  from  doubt, 
envy,  exaction,  fault-seeking,  a  love  whose  sun 
has  no  spot — that  form  of  love,  strong,  great, 
uplifting,  limitless,  whose  vast  proportions  are 
compassable  by  no  word  but  one,  the  prodig 
ious  word,  Worship.  And  it  is  not  as  a  human 
being  that  her  subjects  worship  her,  but  as  a 
supernatural  one,  a  divine  one,  one  who  has 
comradeship  with  God,  and  speaks  by  His  voice. 

Mrs.  Eddy  has  herself  created  all  these  per 
sonal  grandeurs  and  autocracies — with  others 
which  I  have  not  (in  this  article)  mentioned. 
They  place  her  upon  an  Alpine  solitude  and 
supremacy  of  power  and  spectacular  show  not 
hitherto  attained  by  any  other  self-seeking  en 
slaver  disguised  in  the  Christian  name,  and  they 
persuade  me  that,  although  she  may  regard 
"  self -deification  as  blasphemous,"  she  is  as  fond 
of  it  as  I  am  of  pie. 

She  knows  about  "Our  Mother's  Room"  in 
the  Supreme  Church  in  Boston — above  referred 


to  —  for  she  has  been  in  it.  In  a  recently 
published  North  American  Review  article,1  I 
quoted  a  lady  as  saying  Mrs.  Eddy's  por 
trait  could  be  seen  there  in  a  shrine,  lit  by 
always-burning  lights,  and  that  C.  S.  disciples 
came  there  and  worshipped  it.  That  remark 
hurt  the  feelings  of  more  than  one  Scientist. 
They  said  it  was  not  true,  and  asked  me  to 
correct  it.  I  comply  with  pleasure.  Whether 
the  portrait  was  there  four  years  ago  or  not,  it 
is  not  there  now,  for  I  have  inquired.  The 
only  object  in  the  shrine  now,  and  lit  by  elec 
trics — and  worshipped — is  an  oil-portrait  of  the 
horse-hair  chair  Mrs.  Eddy  used  to  sit  in  when 
she  was  writing  Science  and  Health  !  It  seems 
to  me  that  adulation  has  struck  bottom,  here. 

Mrs.  Eddy  knows  about  that.  She  has  been 
there,  she  has  seen  it,  she  has  seen  the  worship 
pers.  She  could  abolish  that  sarcasm  with  a 
word.  She  withholds  the  word.  Once  more  I 
seem  to  recognize  in  her  exactly  the  same  appe 
tite  for  self-deification  that  I  have  for  pie.  We 
seem  to  be  curiously  alike;  for  the  love  of  self- 
deification  is  really  only  the  spiritual  form  of 

1 1902. 


the  material  appetite  for  pie,  and  nothing  could 
be  more  strikingly  Christian-Scientifically  "  har 
monious." 

I  note  this  phrase: 

"Christian  Science  eschews  divine  rights  in 
human  beings." 

"Rights"  is  vague;  I  do  not  know  what  it 
means  there.  Mrs.  Eddy  is  not  well  acquainted 
with  the  English  language,  and  she  is  seldom 
able  to  say  in  it  what  she  is  trying  to  say.  She 
has  no  ear  for  the  exact  word,  and  does  not 
often  get  it.  "Rights."  Does  it  mean  "hon 
ors?"  "attributes?" 

"  Eschews."  This  is  another  umbrella  where 
there  should  be  a  torch ;  it  does  not  illumine  the 
sentence,  it  only  deepens  the  shadows.  Does 
she  mean  "denies?"  "refuses?"  "forbids?"  or 
something  in  that  line  ?  Does  she  mean : 

"Christian  Science  denies  divine  honors  to 
human  beings  ?"  Or : 

"  Christian  Science  refuses  to  recognize  divine 
attributes  in  human  beings?"  Or: 

"  Christian  Science  forbids  the  worship  of  hu 
man  beings?" 


352 

The  bulk  of  the  succeeding  sentence  is  to  me 
a  tunnel,  but,  when  I  emerge  at  this  end  of  it,  I 
seem  to  come  into  daylight.  Then  I  seem  to 
understand  both  sentences — with  this  result  : 

"Christian  Science  recognizes  but  one  God, 
forbids  the  worship  of  human  beings,  and  re 
fuses  to  recognize  the  possession  of  divine  attri 
butes  by  any  member  of  the  race/' 

I  am  subject  to  correction,  but  I  think  that 
that  is  about  what  Mrs.  Eddy  was  intending  to 
convey.  Has  her  English — which  is  always 
difficult  to  me — beguiled  me  into  misunder 
standing  the  following  remark,  which  she  makes 
(calling  herself  "  we,"  after  an  old  regal  fashion 
of  hers)  in  her  preface  to  her  Miscellaneous 
Writings  ?  * 

"  While  we  entertain  decided  views  as  to  the 
best  method  for  elevating  the  race  physically, 
morally,  and  spiritually,  and  shall  express  these 
views  as  duty  demands,  we  shall  claim  no  espe 
cial  gift  from  our  divine  origin,  no  supernat 
ural  power/' 

Was  she  meaning  to  say: 

1  Page  3. 


353 

"  Although  I  am  of  divine  origin  and  gifted 
with  supernatural  power,  I  shall  not  draw  upon 
these  resources  in  determining  the  best  method 
of  elevating  the  race?" 

If  she  had  left  out  the  word  "  our,"  she  might 
then  seem  to  say: 

"  I  claim  no  especial  or  unusual  degree  of  di 
vine  origin — " 

Which  is  awkward — most  awkward;  for  one 
either  has  a  divine  origin  or  hasn't;  shares  in  it, 
degrees  of  it,  are  surely  impossible.  The  idea  of 
crossed  breeds  in  cattle  is  a  thing  we  can  en 
tertain,  for  we  are  used  to  it,  and  it  is  possible ; 
but  the  idea  of  a  divine  mongrel  is  unthink 
able. 

Well,  then,  what  does  she  mean?  I  am  sure 
I  do  not  know,  for  certain.  It  is  the  word 
"our"  that  makes  all  the  trouble.  With  the 
"our"  in,  she  is  plainly  saying  "my  divine 
origin."  The  word  "from"  seems  to  be  in 
tended  to  mean  "on  account  of."  It  has  to 
mean  that  or  nothing,  if  "our"  is  allowed  to 
stay.  The  clause  then  says: 

"  I  shall  claim  no  especial  gift  on  account  of 
my  divine  origin." 


354 

And  I  think  that  the  full  sentence  was  in 
tended  to  mean  what  I  have  already  suggested : 

''Although  I  am  of  divine  origin,  and  gifted 
with  supernatural  power,  I  shall  not  draw  upon 
these  resources  in  determining  the  best  method 
of  elevating  the  race." 

When  Mrs.  Eddy  copyrighted  that  Preface 
seven  years  ago,  she  had  long  been  used  to  re 
garding  herself  as  a  divine  personage.  I  quote 
from  Mr.  F.  W.  Peabody's  book:1 

"  In  the  Christian  Science  Journal  for  April, 
1889,  when  it  was  her  property,  and  published 
by  her,  it  was  claimed  for  her,  and  with  her 
sanction,  that  she  was  equal  with  Jesus,  and 
elaborate  effort  was  made  to  establish  the 
claim." 

"Mrs.  Eddy  has  distinctly  authorized  the 
claim  in  her  behalf,  that  she  herself  was  the 
chosen  successor  to  and  equal  of  Jesus." 

The  following  remark  in  that  April  number, 
quoted  by  Mr.  Peabody,  indicates  that  her 
claim  had  been  previously  made,  and  had  ex 
cited  "  horror  "  among  some  "  good  people  " : 

1  Boston:  15  Court  Square. 


355 

"  Now,  a  word  about  the  horror  many  good 
people  have  of  our  making  the  Author  of  Science 
and  Health  'equal  with  Jesus.' ' 

Surely,  if  it  had  excited  horror  in  Mrs.  Eddy 
also,  she  would  have  published  a  disclaimer. 
She  owned  the  paper;  she  could  say  what  she 
pleased  in  its  columns.  Instead  of  rebuking 
her  editor,  she  lets  him  rebuke  those  "good 
people  "  for  objecting  to  the  claim. 

These  things  seem  to  throw  light  upon  those 
words,  "our  [my]  divine  origin/ ' 

It  may  be  that  "Christian  Science  eschews 
divine  rights  in  human  beings/'  and  forbids 
worship  of  any  but  "one  God,  one  Christ "; 
but,  if  that  is  the  case,  it  looks  as  if  Mrs.  Eddy 
is  a  very  unsound  Christian  Scientist,  and  needs 
disciplining.  I  believe  she  has  a  serious  mal 
ady — "  self  -deification  " ;  and  that  it  will  be  well 
to  have  one  of  the  experts  demonstrate  over  it. 

Meantime,  let  her  go  on  living — for  my  sake. 
Closely  examined,  painstakingly  studied,  she  is 
easily  the  most  interesting  person  on  the  planet, 
and,  in  several  ways,  as  easily  the  most  ex 
traordinary  woman  that  was  ever  born  upon  it. 


356 

P.  S. — Since  I  wrote  the  foregoing,  Mr.  Mc- 
Crackan's  article  appeared  (in  the  March  num 
ber  of  the  North  American  Review).  Before  his 
article  appeared — that  is  to  say,  during  De 
cember,  January,  and  February — I  had  written 
a  new  book,  a  character-portrait  of  Mrs.  Eddy, 
drawn  from  her  own  acts  and  words,  and  it  was 
then — together  with  the  three  brief  articles  pre 
viously  published  in  the  North  American  Re 
view — ready  to  be  delivered  to  the  printer  for 
issue  in  book  form.  In  that  book,  by  accident 
and  good  luck,  I  have  answered  the  objections 
made  by  Mr.  McCrackan  to  my  views,  and 
therefore  do  not  need  to  add  an  answer  here. 
Also,  in  it  I  have  corrected  certain  misstate- 
ments  of  mine  which  he  has  noticed,  and  sev 
eral  others  which  he  has  not  referred  to.  There 
are  one  or  two  important  matters  of  opinion 
upon  which  he  and  I  are  not  in  disagreement; 
but  there  are  others  upon  which  we  must  con 
tinue  to  disagree,  I  suppose;  indeed,  I  know 
we  must;  for  instance,  he  believes  Mrs.  Eddy 
wrote  Science  and  Health,  whereas  I  am  quite 
sure  I  can  convince  a  person  unhampered  by 
predilections  that  she  did  not. 


357 

As  concerns  one  considerable  matter  I  hope 
to  convert  him.  He  believes  Mrs.  Eddy's  word; 
in  his  article  he  cites  her  as  a  witness,  and  takes 
her  testimony  at  par;  but  if  he  will  make  an 
excursion  through  my  book  when  it  comes  out, 
and  will  dispassionately  examine  her  testimo 
nies  as  there  accumulated,  I  think  he  will  in 
candor  concede  that  she  is  by  a  large  percentage 
the  most  erratic  and  contradictory  and  un 
trustworthy  witness  that  has  occupied  the 
stand  since  the  days  of  the  lamented  Ananias. 


CONCLUSION 

BROADLY  speaking,  the  hostiles  reject  and 
repudiate  all  the  pretensions  of  Christian 
Science  Christianity.  They  affirm  that  it  has 
added  nothing  new  to  Christianity ;  that  it  can 
do  nothing  that  Christianity  could  not  do  and 
was  not  doing  before  Christian  Science  was  born. 

In  that  case  is  there  no  field  for  the  new 
Christianity,  no  opportunity  for  usefulness, 
precious  usefulness,  great  and  distinguished 
usefulness?  I  think  there  is.  I  am  far  from 
being  confident  that  it  can  fill  it,  but  I  will  in 
dicate  that  unoccupied  field — without  charge 
— and  if  it  can  conquer  it,  it  will  deserve  the 
praise  and  gratitude  of  the  Christian  world, 
and  will  get  it,  I  am  sure. 

The  present  Christianity  makes  an  excellent 
private  Christian,  but  its  endeavors  to  make 
an  excellent  public  one  go  for  nothing,  sub 
stantially. 

This  is  an  honest  nation  —  in  private  life. 


359 

The  American  Christian  is  a  straight  and  clean 
and  honest  man,  and  in  his  private  commerce 
with  his  fellows  can  be  trusted  to  stand  faith 
fully  by  the  principles  of  honor  and  honesty 
imposed  upon  him  by  his  religion.  But  the 
moment  he  comes  forward  to  exercise  a  public 
trust  he  can  be  confidently  counted  upon  to 
betray  that  trust  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  if 
" party  loyalty"  shall  require  it. 

If  there  are  two  tickets  in  the  field  in  his 
city,  one  composed  of  honest  men  and  the 
other  of  notorious  blatherskites  and  criminals, 
he  will  not  hesitate  to  lay  his  private  Christian 
honor  aside  and  vote  for  the  blatherskites  if 
his  " party  honor"  shall  exact  it.  His  Chris 
tianity  is  of  no  use  to  him  and  has  no  influence 
upon  him  when  he  is  acting  in  a  public  capac 
ity.  He  has  sound  and  sturdy  private  morals, 
but  he  has  no  public  ones.  In  the  last  great 
municipal  election  in  New  York,  almost  a 
complete  one-half  of  the  votes  representing 
3,500,000  Christians  were  cast  for  a  ticket 
that  had  hardly  a  man  on  it  whose  earned  and 
proper  place  was  outside  of  a  jail.  But  that 
vote  was  present  at  church  next  Sunday  the 


same  as  ever,  and  as  unconscious  of  its  perfidy 
as  if  nothing  had  happened. 

Our  Congresses  consist  of  Christians.  In 
their  private  life  they  are  true  to  every  obli 
gation  of  honor;  yet  in  every  session  they 
violate  them  all,  and  do  it  without  shame; 
because  honor  to  party  is  above  honor  to 
themselves.  It  is  an  accepted  law  of  public 
life  that  in  it  a  man  may  soil  his  honor  in  the 
interest  of  party  expediency — must  do  it  when 
party  expediency  requires  it.  In  private  life 
those  men  would  bitterly  resent — and  justly 
— any  insinuation  that  it  would  not  be  safe 
to  leave  un watched  money  within  their  reach ; 
yet  you  could  not  wound  their  feelings  by 
reminding  them  that  every  time  they  vote 
ten  dollars  to  the  pension  appropriation  nine 
of  it  is  stolen  money  and  they  the  marauders. 
They  have  filched  the  money  to  take  care  of 
the  party;  they  believe  it  was  right  to  do  it; 
they  do  not  see  how  their  private  honor  is 
affected;  therefore  their  consciences  are  clear 
and  at  rest.  By  vote  they  do  wrongful  things 
every  day,  in  the  party  interest,  which  they 
could  not  be  persuaded  to  do  in  private  life. 


In  the  interest  of  party  expediency  they  give 
solemn  pledges,  they  make  solemn  compacts; 
in  the  interest  of  party  expediency  they  re 
pudiate  them  without  a  blush.  They  would 
not  dream  of  committing  these  strange  crimes 
in  private  life. 

Now  then,  can  Christian  Science  introduce 
the  Congressional  Blush  ?  There  are  Christian 
Private  Morals,  but  there  are  no  Christian 
Public  Morals,  at  the  polls,  or  in  Congress  or 
anywhere  else — except  here  and  there  and 
scattered  around  like  lost  comets  in  the  solar 
system.  Can  Christian  Science  persuade  the 
nation  and  Congress  to  throw  away  their  pub 
lic  morals  and  use  none  but  their  private  ones 
henceforth  in  all  their  activities,  both  public 
and  private  ? 

I  do  not  think  so;  but  no  matter  about  me: 
there  is  the  field — a  grand  one,  a  splendid  one, 
a  sublime  one,  and  absolutely  unoccupied. 
Has  Christian  Science  confidence  enough  in 
itself  to  undertake  to  enter  in  and  try  to 
possess  it? 

Make  the  effort,  Christian  Science;  it  is  a 
most  noble  cause,  and  it  might  succeed.  It 


could  succeed.  Then  we  should  have  a  new 
literature,  with  romances  entitled,  How  To  Be 
an  Honest  Congressman  Though  a  Christian; 
How  To  Be  a  Creditable  Citizen  Though  a 
Christian. 


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